


Dead Effect

by Rrazz



Category: Dead Space, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Action, Blood and Gore, Gen, Horror, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 11:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 102,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11781972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rrazz/pseuds/Rrazz
Summary: A distress call reaches the Normandy's crew, and commander Shepard is eager to investigate it. What secrets does the USG Ishimura hold? And why does the very thought of entering the ship fill everyone with dread?





	1. Chapter One

"Commander, I think you'd better see this." Shepard groaned as she rolled out of bed and pulled her uniform on. That had been the first words to greet her after being rudely awoken by a alert sounding throughout the ship, and she could tell by Jokers tone that something was wrong.

After everything they'd been through, stopping the collectors, Harbinger, staring down the Illusive Man…Whatever had put off her normally fearless pilot must have been something big.

As the elevator doors slid open, she was greeted by the usual crew going about their business, the only thing out of place was Miranda waiting by her private terminal, obviously waiting for her. "I take it you know what's going on?" She asked her second in command, who shocking shook her head.

"I got the message same time you did commander, figured I would wait for you." That was strange, but she didn't protest, after everything they'd been through over the past few months, it was good to see the Cerberus agent becoming friendlier, if only a little.

Shrugging slightly, the pair made their way to the bridge, where Joker swiftly spun his chair around to face them. "Sorry for the wake up commander, ma'am.' He gave each a nod in turn. "But EDI just picked up something and I figured you'd want to hear this in person."

"It seems to be a distress signal, though it doesn't originate from a ship or station…Rather from an asteroid; someone planted a beacon on it that broadcasted the message from what I can tell." The AI pitched in as her hologram popped up next to the pilots seat.

"Any ideas who sent it?" Shepard asked, her arms crossing slightly as she studied both of them in turn. A distress call was something they should check out, but if they had nothing to go on…

"Well that's the thing…The signal only gives a location, and a name." Joker hesitated for a moment, before finishing. "The USG Ishimura" A frown overtook Shepard's face as she contemplated the name.

"Strange name for a ship…and what does USG stand for?" Miranda asked, Joker shrugged, Melina was silent, and EDI simply muttered something about lacking data."

"Whatever it is," Shepard slowly uncrossed her arms and brushed a few stray locks of crimson hair from her face. "Their calling for help…You have the coordinates I take it?" Again Joker nodded. "Can't hurt to take a look."

"With all due respect, it could be a trap Shepard." Miranda was quick to warn, though Melina simply shrugged.

"We can handle it, and if it's not we can help out whoever needs it." Shepard stated, before turning away from the bridge. "How long will it take to reach the…Ishimura?"

"About five hour's commander."

"Alright, I'll be down in the mess, tell the others to meet me there, best I get them up to speed."

* * *

The hours passed relatively quickly The squad was more then ready for any eventuality, if it was a trap, they'd fight, if it was a legitimate distress call they'd help out in whatever way they could.

Melina sighed heavily as she finished suiting up and examined her armour. It was still beaten and scratched, bullet holes and burns marred it's once pristine red and black surface, but she didn't care, it just proved she'd survived everything fate had thrown at her, and she had a feeling today wasn't going to be any different.

Heading down to the bridge once again, she soon found herself standing behind Jokers seat and gazing out into the cold darkness ahead of them. "Almost close enough for a visual." The pilot commented. Already Shepard could pick out the small speck in the distance, and it was growing larger by the second.

"Damn…Look at the size of that thing." She couldn't help but gasp as she leaned forwards, the ship was massive! Easily the size of the Destiny Ascension, if not larger still. "Looks human, strange." As they drew closer, she noted the telltale human designs about it, it was hard to describe, but it just looked, human made.

"Impressive," She tilted her head slightly to regard Miranda, whom had snuck up on them at some point, before returning to the ship. "I've never seen anything like that before." Shepard nodded in agreement, it wasn't like any class of ship she'd seen before, maybe that had something to do with the title, after all it didn't match any Alliance ship.

"See if you can contact them. Find out who's running the show over there…" Joker swiftly set to work tapping away on the keys and opened a channel. Static greeted them even though it was received.

"This is commander Shepard of the Normandy, we received you're distress signal and are here to help. What's you're situation?" A minute ticked by in silence, and Shepard soon began shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I saw again-" The static suddenly gave way to something, else. A frown darkened her features again as she tried to figure out what the strange garble of noises were. "The, hell?" She whispered, the sound was little more then static and feedback to her ears, but it still send a chill down her spine like nothing else before it.

"Tell the squad to get ready…Were going over there."

"Are you sure that's a good idea commander? That ship gives me the creeps." Joker asked, his voice suddenly gaining a noticeable quiver. Shepard on the other hand was able to keep the unease out of her tone as she nodded.

"How bad can it be…?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Keep you're armour sealed, we have no idea if the oxygen is still on." Melina warned as she finished examining her assault rifle. The squad around her offered a series of confirmations as they did the same. "We have no idea what's aboard, something, or someone triggered the distress signal, so expect hostiles, just don't start shooting until were sure."

Finally, the airlock cycled and the doors opened with a loud rumble. The squad was silent as they examined the corridor beyond. The lights flickered on and off randomly, occasionally giving a glimpse of gray steel floors and walls, and deep red stains, likely blood.

"Looks like someone had a party." Jack muttered, before the squad carefully ventured forwards. No bodies were found initially, which unnerved Shepard somewhat; after all, with all the blood here, surely someone would have died at this point.

"Looks like they moved the bodies…But why?" She asked quietly, though no one knew the answer and kept quiet. Pushing the thought aside, the squad slowly advanced further into the hallway, the constant flickering of the lights cast eerie shadows across the interior of the ship, and once or twice one of them would see a dark shape retreat out of sight, though assumed it to be a trick of the poor lighting, and their own nerves.

Eventually the hallway split into three separate passages, and the group halted. "Which way?" Tali spoke up, her gaze snapping from one choice to the next; all of the corridors were more or less pitch black with only a few overhead lights still clinging to life.

"Much as I hate to say it. We'll have to split up, I have no idea which way leads where." Shepard finally offered, before picking the center path and shouldering her rifle. "Remember; don't shoot unless you're sure their hostile."

She shook her head slightly as she advanced, Shepard had no idea why she was enforcing that order so much, but something about this mission just put her on edge. Maybe it was the lack of resistance so far making her paranoid.

Tali and Jack fell into step behind her; the others split up and took the other paths.

* * *

More poorly lit corridors followed as they slowly twisted and turned like some form of macabre rat maze, only with no lights and blood stains everywhere. "Keelah, what could have done this?" Tali asked, her voice faltering slightly as they came across a rent in the wall, it looked like something sharp had been driven into the steel plates and dragged for several feet, leaving a sizeable cut in what was easily a foot thick metal wall.

"I don't think I want to find out." Jack replied, her eyes narrowing as she ran a hand along the damage. "Must be fucking tough to rip through reinforced metal though."

Shepard nodded slightly, before shifting her gaze back to the corridor ahead. The lights flickered yet again, and she could have sworn she saw something dart behind the wall ahead of them. "Keep you're eyes open, this place is perfect for an ambush."

An hour ticked by with little change, the other squads continued to report in. Though aside from a few rooms that had been ransacked during what was assumed to be a mercenary attack on the Ishimura. With no sign of the crew or even what attacked it, they had little to go on.

"Shepard, we've got something…And it isn't pretty." Garrus' voice crackled over the comm. and caused the trio to halt.

"Found one of the crew?" Shepard responded, though she knew the answer would be something much worse.

"Possibly, or what's left of him. Something appears to have gone to work cutting him up." Melina cringed, but said nothing for the moment. "From what we can tell, it looks like something cut his arms off, one of his legs are missing too…Few bullet wounds on what's left…Either whatever attacked the ship are sick…Or their thorough about it." Just the description alone made the commander ill, though she composed herself and simply nodded.

"Alright, see what else you can find, and stay in touch."

"Got it comma-" Garrus' voice suddenly grew distant and weak, obviously he wasn't talking to her, but the comm. was still open. "You hear that? Sounds like it's coming from the roof." Shepard spared a glance towards the others; they too were listening to the conversation.

A loud clang filled the comm., closely followed by several people shouting. "What the hell-open fire!" Gunfire filled the comm. and drowned out the yelling, and a few seconds later the comm. simply cut off entirely.

"Garrus? Garrus what the hell just happened?" Shepard spared a glance over her shoulder again, Tali was shifting from foot to foot nervously, and Jack was double checking her shotgun. "Miranda, what the hell just happened?" She demanded, knowing the Cerberus agent had gone with the turian.

Silence, hell. "Thane?" He too didn't respond, what happened that would suddenly silence a whole team in a matter of seconds?

Nothing good she'd wager. "Zaeed?"

Finally she received a response. "Were still here. No idea what happened to the others, were still searching this area, no sign of hostiles."

Shepard finally breathed a sigh of relief, on one hand she was still worried about Garrus and the others, but on the other, she trusted them to fight off whatever the hell had attacked.

With a quick gesture, she led her own squad forwards. Silence had descended following the chilling transmission, and now the eeriness of the ship, was even more unnerving.

Just as the squad was beginning to relax, if only a little, a loud clanging sound overhead greeted them. In a heartbeat all three had their guns trained on the ceiling, Garrus' final words still ringing in their ears.

The sound soon gave way to a loud growling as whatever it was ventured closer, and the trio carefully spread out to avoid it dropping on their heads. Shepard, despite her best attempts, noted her hands were shaking slightly as she waited for whatever was up there to strike.

And just as soon as it had arrived, the sound of it moving through what she assumed was a vent died away into the distance. "What was that…?" Tali finally asked, both Sheaprd and Jack simply shrugged.

"No idea, but it didn't sound too friendly." Shepard shivered, before lowering her rifle. "Best we don't stick around for it to come back though."

Aside from a few scattered transmissions from Zaeed's team, they had heard little since. Melina was beginning to grow worried, for all her mental reassurances that Garrus could handle himself; surely he'd have contacted them by now.

The corridor finally gave way to a door, and a simply press of the button in the center opened it with a dull groan.

The inside wasn't much better then the last. It lacked blood but they hadn't seen that in a while, and aside from a few shelves and scattered crates, the interior was bare and empty. A second doorway greeted them on the far side, and Shepard, faced with no other choice aside from turning back, began to inch forwards.

She swiftly halted when the sound of something crawling through the vents caught her attention. "Great, knew our luck couldn't last." Jack growled, her shotgun snapping up towards the only section of the vent that was covered by a see through grate, rather then metal plating.

Whatever it was rushed forwards, the feral growls they'd heard before growing louder.

It stopped right before the grate however, and as Shepard raised her own rifle, she could see a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness, watching her closely. She didn't fire however, instead giving it the benefit of the doubt.

"Warning: Foreign contaminate detected, lockdown initiated." A computerized voice suddenly pitched in, the lights abruptly cut out plunging them into darkness for a second.

Just long enough for the grate to be ripped open and whatever it was to drop into the room with them.

Before Melina could act, yellow hazard lights snapped on and forced some illumination back into the room. Glancing upwards, she saw the grate was gone, downwards; she found the mangled remains of the metal fixture at her feet.

"It's in the room!" Tali gasped, her head snapping left and round as she tried to find whatever was now hiding in the darkness.

Shepard slowly began to back towards the door they'd been heading for, she had no intention of running, but if they could escape into a narrower corridor, it would give the, whatever it was, less room to move.

"Just keep slow." She carefully waved the others over. Though they only made it a few steps before a loud terrifying howl deafened them. Snapping around, Shepard finally spotted the creature as it began to advance on them.

"Holy…What the fuck is that thing!" Jack yelled as she stumbled back a step. It looked, vaguely human, but in the place of its arms, dangerously scythe blade like appendages jutted out of it's shoulders and twitched slightly in anticipation. Its mouth hung partly open in a hungry snarl, and its eyes darted from person to person, clearly trying to decide who was the best option for it's first attack.

Before she could react, the monster made it's choice and sprung forwards, it's scythe like arms swinging in a wide arc towards Shepard's chest. She barely managed to leap backwards and avoice being cut in half. "Shoot it!" She called out, her rifle snapping up to her shoulder once again. By this point however, both Tali and Jack had opened fire.

The biotics shotgun boomed once, and the beast was slammed into the door next to Melina, it didn't get up after that.

"What…The hell…Is that thing?" Shepard gasped, her rifle lowering as she studied the corpse.

"It looks human…But keelah, what could have done such a thing to a person?" Now that she had a closer look, it was still mostly human; the arms weren't the only difference though. It's shoulders seemed oddly positioned above it's head, as she kicked it onto it's side, she discovered a third arm was mysteriously forming out of it's torso.

"Sick is what I'd call it." Shepard mumbled, before turning away from the sight and heading for the door.

She only made it two steps, when a flash of pain suddenly rushed up her leg, and she screamed as whatever had struck, twisted abruptly, the pain suddenly growing worse.

With a sharp yank she hit the floor with a thud, her rifle clattering away. Twisting slightly, and ignoring the pain that accompanied it, she managed to see the source of the pain. Namely the previously thought dead creature having surged to life and driven one of the blade like appendages through her leg.

Tali was quick to shoot it again, her own shotgun booming once, twice, then three times, and still the creature continued to snarl and squirm, the bullets seemingly having no effect.

Snatching her pistol, Shepard began firing blindly at it as well; it was beginning to stand at this point, and was dragging her leg first with it. Finally a shot struck it's shoulder, and the human-like thing howled in pain as another blast from Tali severed the arm completely.

Jack finally lent her support as well and with a second shot the other arm that was threatening to strike Shepard was blow clear across the room.

As abruptly as its second life started, it suddenly collapsed and stopped moving.

Melina was quick to crawl away from the thing, just incase it found a third wind and came back for more. Though with its arms now missing she had a feeling it wouldn't be so quick to attack a third time.

Wincing in pain, she paused to examine the wound; it had gone right through her armour and leg. "Damn it!" Her suit was already applying medi-gel to the injury, but even then it wouldn't help. She'd have a limp at best for the rest of the mission until they could get back to the Normandy and receive proper medical attention.

Jack extended a hand for Shepard and swiftly pulled her upright. Luckily the gel had already taken effect, and while it hurt to put weight on her injured leg, at least she could stand for the time being.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it isn't the last." Tali whispered, her shotgun still trained on the corpse in case it chose to move again.

"Guess we now what happened to Garrus and the others…" Shepard commented bitterly, if these things could sneak around in the vents then it wouldn't be hard to have gotten the drop on squad. She still had a feeling they were alive though, and she wouldn't give up until she found them, one way or another.

"Lets go. I'd rather not stay here and wait for them." Tali spared the body one final glance, before shaking her head and moving to open the door. This one was locked, though it didn't take her long to hack the controls.

"It's strange…These doors use a different system to normal human equipment." As the door slid open, she raised her shotgun once again, nothing lay beyond but another darkened corridor.

"We'll have time to worry about that later, lets just..." Shepard trailed off as she saw something move in the corridor behind Tali. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to spot it, the lights were almost completely out, and only one or two still remained defiantly on, though this only led to more shadows.

"Tali…" She slowly raised her rifle as something moved again, out of the corner of her eye she saw the qurian stiffen slightly, realizing to late what was wrong.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. One moment everyone was still, the next something leapt out of the darkness, the tentacle like creature looked for lack of a better term like it was made entirely of muscle, no bones or skin present.

Before Shepard even had a chance to register the horrible sight, the thing had coiled around Tali's leg, and with a hard tug, pulled the engineer off her feet to slam painfully into the deck, a yelp of pain was all she managed to make, before it suddenly yanked on her leg again, and Tali was dragged literally kicking and screaming from the room.

"TALI!" Shepard leapt forwards in a vain attempt to grab the qurian's hand, but she was gone long before she'd even made it close.

Snatching her discarded rifle from the ground. She ran as fast as her leg could carry her, Jack close behind.

In the distance, she could hear Tali shouting, several gunshots, then silence…


	3. Chapter Three

Shepard had long lost her sense of direction as she jogged through the poorly lit corridors. By some miracle she hadn't run into any more of the mutated human like creatures. Though at the same time she hadn't run into the tentacle thing that had dragged Tali off into the darkness either.

All attempts to contact the qurian had failed, shouting her name, or even using the comms, she was either dead or her radio wasn't working. Or she was unconscious, though Shepard didn't hold much hope for that considering the monstrous thing that had grabbed her, capture just didn't seem like an option for it.

Regardless, she'd refused to give up and was still running, even with her leg aching with each step, she refused to stop and simply kept moving.

"Tali, come one damn it say something!" She demanded, her finger pressed tightly against the side of her helmet as she activated her comm. again.

"It's no good commander, she's not picking up." Jack muttered behind her, though she was ignored, much to her annoyance.

"We can't keep running around blindly like this…There's to many corridors." They'd halted before a split, left and right were options but which way had Tali been taken? And in turn had they even come this way?

A long sigh escaped her as the commander turned and pressed her back to the wall. "Everyone, keep you're eyes open. Garrus and his squad aren't responding, and Tali's MIA as well, dragged off by something, I don't know what. Be careful and try to find them."

She received a string of confirmations from the remaining squad members, before nodding slightly to Jack. "Were going to try and find the bridge. Or at least a map." Pushing off from the wall, she checked the clip on her rifle before setting off down the right path; she only hoped it was right in more ways then one.

* * *

Tali, having been separated from the squad, simply fired her shotgun into the tentacle like creature that was sill firmly wrapped around her leg. Each shot seemed to go unnoticed however, and after only a few the damned thing suddenly whipped around and either slammed her painfully into a wall, or yanked her further down the corridor and towards wherever it came from.

Unable to do much else, she simply continued shooting until her weapon clicked empty, then fought to pry it off her leg to no avail.

Next she resorted to her pistol, though that yielded the same result, each shot seemingly doing nothing but annoying the creature further.

Finally, she knew there was nothing else that could be done, glancing past the tentacle she could see a sizeable hole in the wall, and where the thing had apparently come from originally. That was where it was slowly pulling her towards.

Reloading her pistol, she resumed firing, there was no other option but to try and hold on till the last moment. Again the gun clicked empty, and she was forced to discard it as she was slammed into the deck a third time.

Wincing in pain, she focused instead on trying to find something to grab onto, everything she did get a hold of however, she was forced to let go of when it suddenly ripped her away from the hand hold.

Just when she'd given up hope. A loud boom, almost like a shotgun filled the corridor, and the creature suddenly shuddered, a second boom followed, and it let go of the struggling qurian.

A third and final shot and a loud shriek of pain from somewhere far below assaulted Tali's ears, then everything was silent, the tentacle having retreated into the hole without its prize.

Panting quietly, the engineer lifted her head slightly, only to gasp when she found herself being stared down by the same weapon that had saved her not moments before.

Tilting her head very slightly, she examined the figure holding it, it looked human, though it wore armour unlike any she'd seen before. Instead of the power armour most human soldiers wore, this suit was a dull brown; ridges lined its surface with only slight gaps between each to offer strangely contrasting and uneven plating.

Angling further up, she noted the helmet was different as well, instead of the see through visor like Shepard wore, or even a partly see-through one like her own, the helmet for this person was completely sealed, only a series of teal lines flowing from left to right gave any indication of whoever was inside being able to see out, if they needed to at all.

Something about the armour made her think of a human like geth rather then a person. The design of the armour appearing more robotic then like actual armour, though something about the way the head tilted and angled slightly as it examined her, and the way the hand flexed on the weapon almost nervously told her otherwise.

Finally, a distinctly male voice broke the silence, he sounded human as well, though the speaker that filtered his voice added a slight crackle of static. "Strange…You don't look like one of the crew." He questioned, his pistol not lowering as he studied Tali.

The weapon as well seemed strange, what little she could see of the handle looked like a normal pistol, though the actual barrel of the weapon was far to large for a normal pistol however, and a trio of laser sights stared back at her.

As she studied the gun however, the barrel suddenly shifted sideways and the laser sights lined up with her neck, causing her to tense in fear. Whoever they were, they seemed less then friendly.

Focusing back on the, person, she noted his posture shift slightly, as he seemed to relax, his shoulders slumping just a little, before he lowered the weapon to his side. "Doesn't look human…But if the necromorphs want you dead... Who are you? You don't look like one of the crew."

After a moment, Tali managed to stammer a response. "I'm Tali'Zorah vas Neema. I'm part of Normandy's crew, we came to help. We received a distress signal." She briefly considered asking what the hell a, necromorph was, but considering he was the one with the gun, she wasn't keen on asking to many questions.

"Tali'Zorah…" He shifted slightly, his weight transferring from one foot to the other as he contemplated the words. "Strange name. But you're not trying to kill me, and that's enough for me." Finally he extended a hand to help her stand and once she was upright he took a few steps back, obviously not willing to be within arms reach of the qurian.

"You're part of the crew?" Tali asked as she collected her pistol, she kept the movements slow, noting how the soldier tensed and lifted his own weapon slightly in response. Though she took care to simply reload it and keep it at her side, he relaxed upon seeing she wasn't planning to use it.

The figure shook his head. "I was part of a repair team, sent to fix a problem with the ship…Little we know the place was, infested with these things."

She frowned for a moment, before sparing a glance over her shoulder in the direction she'd come from. That thing must have dragged her pretty far; otherwise Shepard would have caught up by now. Turning back she sighed heavily, she was on her own, save for whoever this was, and she wasn't even sure she could trust him.

"Do you know what's happening? My team encountered some form of…Monster earlier, just before that thing dragged me off." She made a slight nod towards the hole the tentacle had come out of. The figure shook his head slightly in response.

"I don't know much either. Those things have been after me since we arrived ourselves…Little I do know though…Seems their what's left of the crew." Tali recoiled slightly at the news. That, thing had been a crew member?

"Keelah…What could have done such a thing?"

Again he shook his head. "You're guess is as good as mine. Though their beyond saving, the few, normal crew I've seen killed themselves seconds later."

The qurian simply shuddered slightly. "For both our sakes, it might be better if we stick together…I don't believe I caught you're name?"

He hesitated for a moment, and she briefly thought he wouldn't answer. Finally he shrugged slightly again and responded. "Names, Isaac."

* * *

Shepard paused for a moment as she checked her Omni-tool. It had been an hour since Garrus had stopped responding, thirty five minutes since they'd lost Tali. And aside from a few empty rooms and the occasional corpse, they'd found nothing else, even the strange mutant creatures hadn't made their presence known since the initial attack.

Just when she was on the verge of giving up, a final door presented an, interesting sight. As she carefully advanced into the room, which turned out to be far larger then first appeared, Melina discovered they'd ended up on a platform, and a train of all things was waiting at the station. "What the hell?"

She spared a glance towards Jack, who shrugged slightly. Still, considering the size of the ship she supposed they would need a means of transport. And a tram system, she guessed that would work.

Approaching it, she noted the interior wasn't much different form what they'd encountered in the corridors, the lack of blood was noticeable, but whatever contents had been within had been scattered about the compartment.

Keeping her rifle ready, Shepard slowly advanced into the tram. Luckily there was nothing inside, save a computer terminal that lit up as she approached and displayed a schematic of the ship.

"Looks like we've found a tram or something. Guess this is how they get around." She alerted the rest of her squad, before carefully touching the screen, as soon as her finger brushed across the screen; it lit up and displayed the various sectors they could go.

"Guess this is our ticket to the bridge." Melina commented, before checking to ensure Jack was aboard, that done she tapped the icon for the bridge, and breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed and the tram suddenly jolted into motion.


	4. Chapter Four

Shepard checked her clock again as the tram slowly ground to a halt at the next station. It had taken fifteen minutes to reach the station from, wherever they started. She'd checked the map during the trip and hadn't found anything of note as to where they'd started.

She'd tried to raise Tali as well during that agonizing time period, and failed miserably. "Something could be jamming our communications." Jack commented once she'd given up, maybe that was it, maybe something aboard the ship was screwing with there comms.

Hell she couldn't even get the rest of the crew anymore. "Either way, we need to get to the bridge. I'm sure if anyone's still alive they'll be there I should wager." And if not they could probably salvage some information on what happened and why such a massive ship was so empty.

The pair didn't make it far, before stumbling across another of the scythe armed creatures. Luckily this one was already dead already. Shepard spared it a worried glance, before lowering her rifle. "Strange…It doesn't look injured, no bullet wounds or the like."

She didn't dwell on the body for long; they had a mission to deal with. And after a moment the commander moved to one side of the corridor and started to inch around it.

As she did so however, the body suddenly let forth a savage cry and sprung back to its feet, one arm lashing out and missing Melina's stomach by inches. Out of instinct she leapt back, though thanks to her current position she simply struck the wall and found herself with nowhere else to go.

Before the creature could strike again however, it's body was enveloped in a shimmering blue force field. As it flailed madly to try and strike Shepard again, it was lifted a few feet off the ground, before suddenly being slammed back into the deck hard enough to break a few bones.

The same blue field surrounded Jack as well, and as it faded she brought her shotgun up and fired a round into the twitching mutant. Melina didn't waste any time bringing her own rifle up and firing as well.

The combined fire from both soon put it down again. Though Shepard knew better this time, and after slamming a fresh thermal clip into her rifle, she fired another burst into the corpse just to be sure.

"Okay…So they don't stay dead forever…" The commander mumbled, before resuming her careful trek around the body, ensuring to give it a nice wide berth just to be safe.

Her companion however was a little less cautions. In fact, Jack made a point of stepping on the creature as she passed, breaking it's neck and somehow severing an arm in the process. Shepard merely cringed and did her best to tune out the loud snapping of bones as she proceeded towards the bridge. "I'm really starting to hate this place…"

* * *

Tali kept quiet for the most part as she followed Isaac through the twisting corridors of the ship. Luckily he seemed to know where he was going, and when she had asked he'd assured her he knew the ship well enough.

They'd only run into a few of the creatures along the way, and luckily the weapon he carried seemed more then capable of ripping them to shreds in seconds. And as she learned, that was the only way to kill them.

"Aim for the limbs, not the body!" He'd shouted midway through the fight with the first, necromorph as he called them. She had obeyed without question, and managed to sever the beast's leg with a well aimed shotgun blast.

"Why the limbs?" The qurian finally summed up the courage to ask minutes later as they wandered the disturbingly empty halls.

"I don't really know. But all the information the crew left behind says so. And aside from that, if it hasn't got arms or legs, it can't hurt you." He'd chuckled at that point, the sound almost as worrying as the monsters due to the suit's audio filter distorting the sound.

It made sense though, even if they couldn't outright kill them, if they couldn't fight back they could escape at least.

'Where exactly are we heading?" She couldn't tell one corridor from the next, and while she put a little faith in the human not leading her astray, she was growing curious about their goal.

"To the tram first of all, then I'm heading down to the medical wing." She could tell he was holding something back, but chose not to push the issue. "I'm not going to make you stick around, but I think it would be better for both of our well beings. After all, there's safety in numbers." Tali couldn't find a reason to argue, after all she didn't know her way around the ship, and she couldn't contact anyone else from the Normandy crew, so he was her only hope of getting out of this alive at the moment.

Somehow, that didn't make her feel better…

* * *

"Guess this is the…Bridge…Whoa." Shepard halted as the doors slid open at her touch and revealed the massive room beyond. It had to be ten times the size of the Normandy's CIC deck alone, and most of it was just open space!

As she advanced further into the room, her gaze fell upon the banks of terminals and various stations the crew would normally work at. Though as she expected, the place was empty." What happened to the crew? Surely someone would have made it through this mess; I mean we've only encountered a few of those things." She commented, her hands gripping her rifle tightly as she scanned the room more thoroughly, this was too easy. It was a massive room and she had the feeling something was just waiting to take a bite out of her neck.

She couldn't see anything save what appeared to be an elevator in the center of the room, sadly it blocked her view of the other side of the bridge and made it difficult to see the area beyond, chances are whatever was waiting for them was hiding behind that.

"Stay low and keep quiet." She whispered into her comm., Jack being the only one who could hear her due to their proximity. Sinking into a crouch, Shepard began to advance slowly.

Nothing at all reacted and after sweeping the bridge she finally stood again and lowered her rifle. "Where the hell is everyone?" Jack called out, causing Melina to wince and briefly shoot a glare towards the biotic.

"Warning: Foreign contaminate detected!" The VI voice called out again, and Shepard groaned as yellow warning lights and alarms kicked in.

"You just HAD to ask didn't you?" Shepard snapped, before shouldering her weapon. The only sound that she could pick up on over the alarms was a dull chiming sound, a sound that was coming from the…

Hell, she spun on her heel and waited as the sound of the elevator approaching grew louder. "Looks like they figured out how to hit a switch." She mumbled, before taking a step back to grant herself another inch of room.

Tense seconds ticked by as the elevator drew closer and Jack scanned the newly sealed bridge for signs of the anything trying to get the drop on them.

Shepard's eyes shifted very slightly to the display next to the lift, level three, two, one. The sound halted, and she held her breath as the doors finally parted, her finger tightened on the trigger so she could act at a moments notice.

Instead of the blood thirsty monster she expected though, she was caught off guard as she was met by a fellow human in what appeared to be very basic body armour stared back at her, assault rifle of his own trained on her. Surprisingly he lacked a helmet, or much armour in general, it looked more like a uniform then anything else. Though that did confirm the ship's air filtration systems still worked.

Shepard hesitated, her finger slowly releasing pressure on the trigger as she examined the person. He looked like a soldier in her mind, the general posture and way he carried his weapon gave that away.

The fact that he hadn't fired first was a good sign, and once she was convined she wasn't about to lose her head, Melina lowered her rifle a fraction as a sign of good will. Surprisingly, the man did the same, though neither lowered their weapons to the point of standing down.

"Who are you?" He finally demanded, his voice carrying a commanding tone that only further confirmed the commanders suspicion that he was a soldier.

"Commander Shepard of the Normandy…You?"

"Chief security officer Hammond, USG Hellion."

Finally, Shepard reluctantly lowered her weapon. She didn't trust him, but she didn't want to shoot the only survivor they'd encountered so far. "Well, it's good to see someone on this death trap is still alive."

Hammond lowered his weapon as well and finally stepped out of the elevator, Jack was still scanning the room, the alert was still active, but she tuned it out for the moment, focusing instead on the security officer.

"There's only two of you?" He asked after a moment, his voice clearly sounding disappointed. "Way things are going we'll need an army to retake the ship."

Melina shrugged slightly. "There's more of us, but we got separated, and now our comms aren't working."

Hammond was about to respond, when a deafening bang drew the trios attention. A moment later a second bang sounded, closely followed by the screech of stressed metal.

All eyes fell upon the door Shepard and Jack had entered the bridge from only a minute or two prior as it began to buckle. Another loud clang sounded as whatever was on the other side struck it again. Each impact slowly pushed the door inward another inch.

"That can't be good." Shepard muttered as she readied her weapon.

"Whatever it is, it must be big to rip through a door that thick." Hammond commented as he checked his own weapon, the display indicating the clip was full.

A second later the doors were struck again, and a louder bang sounded as they struck the deck a good ten feet into the room.

"Holy, shit…" Melina gulped as whatever was on the other side began to advance into the room.


	5. Chapter Five

Shepard was, for the first time she could recall; grateful she was wearing a helmet. As mouth dropped open at the hulking figure that stomped out of the darkness of the newly destroyed door and glared at them.

It was almost the size of a tank if she were to judge. It's arms appeared to have some form of bone like plating across them, and if she had to guess, they were bullet proof.

A second later Jack fired her shotgun and the rounds simply bounced off the creature, thus confirming her theory. "Okay, any ideas?" Shepard's finally broke through the shock and her head snapped around to focus on Hammond, who offered a helpless shrug.

"Perfect…" Focusing on the creature, Melina shouldered her rifle once again and fired a short burst, its arm was raised in a flash and deflected them. "Quick bastard." That would be a problem.

Before she could try again, it suddenly roared and sprung into motion, rushing towards the trio at an alarming speed.

Jack reacted first, a flash of blue signalling her biotics flaring. Though a moment later she gasped and the field vanished. "Fuck! It's too heavy!"

"Then try something else!" Shepard snapped before leaping to one side to avoid the brutes charge. Rolling back to her feet, she fired again, and was rewarded with a spray of blood and the creature skidding to a halt and whipping around to face her once again.

Melina began to inch backwards slowly, her grip on her rifle growing tighter as the thing began to advance once again, this time at a slower, but still rapid pace. Seeing its blind charge failed, it seemed more cautious this time.

Luckily the others were luckier, as Hammond opened fire as soon as it's back was turend and Jack unleashed another blast of biotic energy. With a loud snarl it whipped around once again, it's arms leaping up to protect itself from the sudden assault.

"Looks like we found a weak point." Jack called out, before hastily jumping back a step as one of the beasts arms lashed out and almost caved her skull in.

Shepard winced at the close call before focusing on the opportunity this distraction provided. If they could flank it and keep it turning, then it would make things a hell of a lot easier.

She shot it again once it was distracted, and unsurprisingly it spun to face her. "Keep it up!" It might have been three times her size, but it was easy to keep distracted, a few more shots and they'd bring it down, or so she hoped anyway.

Jack and Hammond wasted no time taking advantage of its exposed back. The beast shuddered, but didn't turn around this time. Shepard cursed quietly as she fired again, the bullets pinging off it's armoured front. "Not, good." Before she could act, it charged again, and this time she had no time to dodge.

Just before it struck however, a sudden flash of light struck it from behind, and it's movements ground almost to a halt. The commander stumbled back a few steps as she tried to avoid the charge. "What?" It was almost like the creature was suddenly moving in slow motion, its steps ponderously slow as it tried to close the gap.

"Move! It won't last long!" Hammond shouted, before he resumed firing. Shepard didn't need any further encouragement, already its pace was picking up. Moving aside, she watched in fascination as it suddenly picked up speed and, with her out of the way, it simply kept going and slammed into the wall.

Shaking it's head, the brute slowly turned and faced them once again, it's arms moving to protect it's face from any further attack. With a second to spare, she spared a glance towards their new companion. So he was a biotic? But how the hell did he slow it down like that? That was a skill she hadn't encountered before even from an asari.

Pushing the thought aside, she instead focused back on the target as it roared and started to advance once again. Questions later, they had bigger problems.

Jack loosed another blast of biotic energy, and as with before the creature, whatever the hell it was, simply staggered and resumed its advance, the biotic on the other hand was breathing heavily and stumbled back a step, she couldn't keep that up for much longer.

"Save it, were not going to kill it that way." Shepard told her, before she opened fire once again. This thing just wouldn't die would it? A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed Hammond was starting to move to one side, and with a nod Jack began to do the same. Meanwhile Melina started to inch backwards. Their only chance was getting behind it, and that meant one of them would have to hold its attention.

Shepard, naturally kept firing and held it's gaze, though she noted the head shifting slightly as the others moved, clearly picking up on the plan. Damn this thing was smarter then she gave it credit for.

She hesitated for a moment as the thermal clip in her rifle overheated. Her gaze shifted down for only a second as she pressed the eject button and slammed a fresh one into the weapon.

In that split second however she heard Hammond shout a warning, her gaze snapped up just in time to realize the hulking monster was suddenly right in front of her.

Before she could act one of it's plated arms lashed out. A flash of pain was the first thing she felt, followed by another she was slammed into a computer terminal, sparks struck her depleted shields and armour as she hit the ground.

As her vision grew dark she could see the brute advancing on her once again, the heavy thuds of its footsteps growing fainter with each passing second before the darkness fully engulfed her vision.

* * *

Hammond cursed several times as he saw Shepard fall. It was obvious it had either knocked her out cold, or she was dead. Judging by the complete lack of motion, he suspected the latter.

Just what he needed, finally someone that didn't try to gut him, and they get killed two minutes after he runs into them.

A scream of rage filled the air and brought him back to the situation at hand. The other soldier, he didn't know her name, rushed forwards and fired several shotgun rounds into the beasts unprotected back. Before somehow rolling out of the way as it lashed out again and spun to face her.

With it's attention off the commander and away from him, Hammond started firing once again. The shots didn't seem to be affecting it however, and he was fast running out of ammo.

Finally, one of the shots struck a strange spot on its back, the yellow orb suddenly burst, and he heard a howl of, what he assumed was pain as the beast stumbled before turning around.

The other soldier had obviously seen this as she took more care with her next shot and caught it as well. This time though it didn't turn, instead it kept advancing, obviously it had caught up with the fact that this was a common occurrence, and focusing on one at a time would be a smarter option.

It started to rush forwards again, though this time he was ready, his hand extended and unleashed another stasis field, unable to alter it's heading, the creature ran right into the ball of energy and was dragged down to almost a crawl.

Jogging out of it's path, he looped around behind it and started firing once again, thankfully Jack was swiftly at his side and pitching in as well. The combined fire finally proved to much it seemed.

By the time the stasis filed had worn off, the beast had stumbled to a halt, and with a final cry of pain it slumped to the ground and, aside from a few twitches it stopped moving.

Hammond waited for a full minute, rifle never leaving the brute. Once he was sure it wouldn't get up again he slung the weapon over his shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over…"

He didn't have time to celebrate however, even as the computer announced the quarantine was over, along with the threat, he was jogging towards the still unmoving body a few feet away.

By the time he'd reached Sheaprd and dropped to one knee to check her condition, the other solider was by his side. "How is she?" She demanded, her hands still clutching her shotgun tightly.

Somehow, Hammond got the feeling if he gave her bad news, the necromorphs would be the least of his worries…

A quick glance didn't help. Normally one could tell a persons condition thanks to the readout along the spine. This rig must have been different somehow, as it lacked the display.

"No idea." He admitted quietly, a few moments later and he finally found the seals on her helmet and carefully eased it off, who knew what kind of condition her neck was in after that.

Setting it down, he shifted a hand to her neck to check for a pulse.

* * *

The tram finally halted at the medical wing, and Isacc and Tali instinctively raised their weapons as the door opened. A moment later the pair crept out onto the platform and, upon finding nothing dangerous, allowed themselves a moment to relax.

Isaac quietly extended one hand and with a slight movement, activated the guide system his rig was equipped with. A blue light swiftly appeared and trailed off down the corridor and to the right.

Satisfied, he shut it down and spared a glance towards Tali, who was eyeing him curiously. "What?"

He saw her shake her head, before mumbling something he couldn't understand and turning away. Shrugging slightly, eh set off in the direction his suit had indicated, the qurian close behind.

He had to admit, it was strange turning his back on, what he assumed was an alien and trusting her not to try shooting him. Hell it was a miracle he hadn't shot her straight off the bat. This place was making him paranoid.

It was a good thing he hadn't however. She was good with a gun, even if her weapons seemed lacking in the firepower area; it was still better then nothing.

He made a mental note to stop by one of the stores along the way. Normally they'd only dispense supplies to the crew. But thanks to his clearance he was able to access the armoury as well.

As good as she was with a shotgun, she really needed a plasma cutter, or a pulse rifle if she was going to survive the next few hours on the Ishimura.

His thoughts were interrupted as they reached the door they were meant to go through, only to discover it was barricaded. "Damn it!" He needed to get past, but it looked sturdy, and they couldn't just move it aside.

"Did the…Creatures, do this?" Isaac spared Tali a brief glance, before shaking his head.

"Doubt it. They don't strike me as the, defensive type." That presented a question then, if they didn't barricade the door, then who did?

"Survivors!" The realization dawned on him, there was still crew alive! He saw the woman next to him spare another glance, obviously confused by his sudden outburst. "I doubt the necromorphs would do this…It's more likely someone would have sealed the door to keep them out. There must be people still alive on the other side."

Tali nodded slightly. "I assume we need to go that way too?" He nodded slightly to confirm her question. "But how exactly do we get past this?"

"Don't know…Explosives maybe, but unless you're carrying some then were out of luck." He almost groaned when she shook her head. "Knew this was too easy."

After a moments thought, Isaac switched on his comm unit and watched the holographic screen flicker to life in front of him. "Hammond, I'm at the medical wing, but we've run into a problem." He caught sight of Tali recoiling slightly at the sudden appearance of the screen, though for now he ignored her, focusing on trying to raise his commanding officer.

"Hammond?" Finally the static gave way to a familiar face, just not the one he was expecting. "Kendra?" He shifted slightly when the screen resolved enough to show her worried expression.

"Issac, thank god one of you is still out there. I haven't heard from Hammond for about twenty minutes," The engineer cringed, he hadn't spoken to the officer for about that time either. "he won't answer, but his rigs still transmitting, he's still alive at least." A sigh escaped him at the news, the last thing they needed was another casualty.

"That's something at least…I've run into a barricaded door, is there any other way into this part of the medical wing?"

He couldn't see her hands, but he could hear the tapping of keys through the comms for a few seconds. "No, but I can unlock the rest of the medical wing, hopefully you can find something useful, explosives maybe."

Issac chuckled at that. "Yeah, I'm sure the doctor keeps a box or two by his desk in case of emergency's" His amusement swiftly ended when Kendra gave him a almost venomous glare through the screen.

"Well unless you have a better idea! I suggest you try to think of something yourself! I haven't got a damned clue how to make explosives."

"Alright, I'll see what I can work out." The screen snapped off a second later, and he turned his gaze to Tali. "She's as cheerful as ever I see."

The alien simply shrugged. "So, I take it you have a plan."

"Not really, but I'm sure with a little, improvisation we can figure something out." He could tell by the sliver lights he'd come to believe were her eyes dancing slightly, that she was rolling her eyes at the news. "Come on, the longer we stay in one place the more likely we are to run into more of those…"

As if on cue, the sound of metal screeching and a loud clang came from the corridor to their left. "Things…" He finished, before checking the readout on his plasma cutter. "Never a dull moment 'round here."


	6. Chapter Six

Miranda mumbled quietly to herself as she continued toying with her Omni-tool. "You're good, but not that good." She commented quietly her eyes dancing across the display as she carefully ran a bypass and tried to break the communication lockout.

She wasn't sure how, or why their comms had been hacked, but whoever it was had worked fast and jammed them quite easily, the advantage was they hadn't anticipated someone catching on it seemed, the security was only basic, and while she could tell whoever was running the jammer was fighting back, she was that much faster.

Finally a beep sounded and she smiled as a hand leapt to her ear. "Commander, come in, I've managed to override the communication error, someone was jamming us…Commander?"

A voice soon answered, though instead of Shepard like she'd hoped, it was a much different voice, and the last one she'd wanted, or expected to hear. "Oh great, of all the fucking people that could have survived, figured it'd be the cheerleader." Jack's cold and sarcastic voice hissed into her ear.

"The feelings mutual," She growled, before composing herself, Jack had been with Shepard when they split up. "Where's Shepard? I don't know how long I can keep this channel open."

There was a long pause, before the psychopath said the two words Miranda had never expected from her. "She's dead…" The Cerberus agents jaw fell slack and she stumbled back into the wall behind her.

"D-Dead? Are you, su-sure?"

"She got slammed into a fucking computer by a huge monster! Damn thing was built like a tank! Now she's sprawled out on the deck in a pool of blood. I'm pretty fucking sure cheerleader!"

Miranda was silent for a full minute, the possibility of the communications being jammed again forgotten. How could Shepard be, dead?

"So what's the plan?" Jack's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. It must have been bad if the biotic was willing to listen to her…

"I don't know…I got separated from Thane and Garrus. I'll try and hack the comms and find them, see if we can get to you."

"Alright, I'm on the bridge with…Some soldier we found, called himself Hammond." Miranda nodded slightly, before breaking the link and turning her attention back to her Omni-tool.

* * *

Isaac let out the breath he'd been holding as he ejected the drained powerpack from his plasma cutter and replaced it with a fresh one. Three more of the necromorphs were dead and dismembered, and he was almost out of ammo.

He spared a glance towards Tali. And noted she was scanning the display on her shotgun, her posture indicated she was worried. "How much?" He asked.

"Two clips at best, you?"

"Twelve rounds."

"Keelah…" Tali shook her head, before glancing about the corridor they'd halted in. The place was deserted save for them and a few bodies at this point. "I have no idea where we are…Doubt I could get back to the ship and get more clips."

Isaac shook his head. "No offense, but we don't have time to double back. Come on." He set off down the corridor once again, his eyes narrowing a little behind his visor as the lights flickered on and off, it made for a perfect ambush spot in his mind.

"Should be a store nearby, we can stock up there." Had he been watching, he would have seen Tali's head tilt slightly, though she didn't voice her confusion, shouldn't they be heading for an armoury to restock, not a store?

Again he hesitated as the corridor split into two, another click and the light pointed him in the right direction. "Don't know where I'd be without this.' He muttered more to himself then his companion.

Following the guide system around another corner, he was grateful to find the door opened into a medical bay. The room was large, but almost everywhere he looked were tables and monitoring equipment.

"Why do you need such a large operating room?" Tali asked as they carefully advanced, the lights were on and the lockdown hadn't kicked in, that was a good sign.

"Accidents are…were rare, but the Ishimura has a crew of a thousand or more people." He didn't have an exact crew count, nor was he really worried about exact numbers. "Plus it doubles as a medical research vessel, hence why it needs such a large medical deck. Hell this is only one wing."

He heard Tali mutter something in her native language and was grateful his helmet hid a smile, judging by her comments so far, he had a feeling she hadn't seen a ship this size before, and judging by the fact she wasn't human. It was entirely possible.

Isaac hadn't tried prying to much though, all he needed to know right now was her name and that she could handle a gun. They could talk more on the next tram or once they were off this deathtrap.

He cast his gaze carefully about the room, a few bodies were scattered here and there, and luckily none of them were showing signs of changing. Maybe the necromorphs had moved on, or hadn't struck this deck yet.

That didn't mean he was going to lower his guard however. He slowly approached one of the bodies and carefully sunk into a crouch, one hand kept the plasma cutter trained on the corpse while the other began checking for anything useful. Ammo, credits, anything he could use in the fight ahead.

After a moment he found a power pack, and without pause tucked it into a pocket on his rig. Finding nothing else he stood and was about to keep moving when Tali stepped in front of him. He didn't need to see her face to know she was mad.

"What?" He saw her helmet shift slightly, like she was moving to say something, though after a moment she simply shook her head and turned away. Great, he'd ticked her off somehow. He spared a glance towards the body at his feet. The wound on his neck indicated he'd had his throat slit somehow. Likely with one of his own medical tools.

Leaving the body alone –there was nothing he could do at this point- Isaac spared a glance around the room, nothing else really stood out. "Come on, let's keep moving."

* * *

Tali followed silently as they crept through another serious of corridors. It was almost unnerving, they knew there was more of those, creatures lurking somewhere around here, but they refused to reveal themselves.

She wasn't sure which was worse, being attacked every few seconds, or not seeing the things at all. At least if they were fighting it would prove a constant distraction from her thoughts.

While she hadn't said anything to Isaac initially, she wasn't pleased with him stealing from the bodies they'd stumbled across. It was disrespectful! Those people had died and all he cared to do was steal what few things they had and keep walking? She wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure what his reaction would be, he did have a gun, and she didn't know just how expendable he considered her at the moment.

Pushing the thought from her mind, she activated her comm. unit again and noted with a sigh it still didn't work. Either her suit had taken more damage then she thought, or something else was at work.

Her Omni-tool lit up as she tapped in a few commands and tried to find her squad. Sadly no one answered.

Sighing in defeat, she switched it off and focused on Isaac, whom had stopped by another computer terminal. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as the screen clicked on, the words *Store* being the first thing she noted.

"Is everything on this ship automated?" She asked as he tapped the screen and began punching in commands.

"Not everything." He responded quietly, his attention solely focused on the machine. She had to admit, it was interesting to watch him work. He was as fast on the keys as her, and seemed to have the same level of knowledge. Plus she got to see some of the Ishimura's equipment used first hand and learn a thing or two at the same time.

Finally the screen changed and he idly tapped a few places on the screen, before turning to face Tali. Even though she couldn't see his face, she had a feeling he was smiling. "Good news, turns out the terminal still works."

A few moments later a section opened and she titled her head to peer over his shoulder as he began removing whatever contents had been revealed.

Another gun same model as his, and what looked like the power packs he'd been using along with it. Isaac wasted no time retrieving the packs and finding pockets to keep them secure.

Once he retrieved the second plasmas cutter however, he checked to ensure it was in working condition, and flipped it around to offer handle first to Tali, whom gave him a puzzled glance.

"I've seen those clips you use…Trust me, the shop doesn't stock them. Plus this is more effective." The quarian hesitated for a few moments, before finally accepting the weapon.

"T-Thank you." She finally mumbled, her gaze shifting away from the engineer as she examined the cutter.

Isaac offered a slight nod, before giving her a rundown of how it worked…

* * *

Hammond spared a confused glance towards Jack as she finished arguing with whoever was on the other end of her radio. "Why exactly did you say Shepard was dead?"

"Look at her!" She made a gesture towards the commander, blood matted her already dull red hair from when she hit the computer, and they knew she was worse off beneath her armour. Though Hammond had no idea how to remove it to try and do anything, and Jack refused to offer any advice. So for now he was simply doing his best to patch up her head and hope for the best. "If she isn't dead already, she's not far from it!"

"She's still breathing, and until she stops there's a chance!" He saw the woman about to argue, when the alarm suddenly kicked in again.

"Oh you've got to be shitting me…" Jack growled as a hand snapped to her shotgun.


	7. Chapter Seven

Isaac couldn't help but smile as he watched Tali toying with the plasma cutter. It had only taken a minute at best to run her through a crash course on how it worked. And surprisingly she'd grasped the concept easily enough. He had a feeling she'd still have problems, after all the weapon had a bit of a kick behind it, something he rationalized her shotgun would have been an equal to.

"Just don't shoot me." He finished, before carefully checking his own weapon. Under normal circumstances he'd probably have been less then enthusiastic about handing over something as dangerous as a cutter to an alien he'd only met an hour ago at best. But considering they were relying on each other to stay alive, he was willing to take a chance.

Now came the rather problematic situation, how exactly were they going to get through the barricade and get into the medical labs? Hammond would have probably had a solution but with the comms not working it made things difficult.

As skilled as he was, making explosives out of medical supplies wasn't exactly part of his training. Pushing the thought aside, he spared a glance over his shoulder, Tali was still distracted by the tool turned weapon.

He really hoped he wasn't making a mistake, the cutters weren't meant to be used as weapons, but all things considered they did the job just fine, putting his doubts aside for the time being, he set off once again, the quarian close behind.

"If you have any suggestions on how to make explosives, I'm all ears." Isaac finally commented as the corridor led, unsurprisingly into another corridor.

"I could…Probably make something with the right tools. But I'm not sure if we'll find it here." The engineer nodded slightly, it was better then nothing at least.

The rest of their explorations continued in silence, or rather with them listening to the various noises of the ship around them. Occasionally they'd hear the thudding of something in the air vents, or the clang as something ripped a grate off and threw it against a wall. Though with each sound that seemed to be growing steadily closer, they never encountered one of the creatures making the noise, and it was growing nerve wracking.

Isaac had grown used to the sounds by now. It didn't mean he didn't react of course, each time he heard something his grip tightened on his cutter as he waited for something to leap out of the shadows. Tali on the other hand he could hear her breathing growing faster and more panicked, and each time he spared a glance he could see the silver lights behind her visor darting this way and that. She was scared, and there was nothing he could do about it…

* * *

The corridors finally gave way to another open room. Unlike the operating theatre they'd passed through before however, this one was full of, what appeared to be glass tanks.

Isaac knew the ship had doubled as a research facility, but as he examined one of the tanks he had an uneasy feeling that something else was at work here. The tank was misted and the interior hard to see, but the shape floating in the, water or whatever fluid was, appeared to be humanoid, if a lot bigger.

The engineer was by no means short, but that thing looked easily twice his size, and probably the same across the shoulders. As he ran a hand along the glass and removed the condensation he noted it's arms had been replaced by the same blade like hands he'd seen the majority of the necromorphs using.

"Keelah…" He slowly backed away from the tank and spared a glance towards Tali, whom had found a computer terminal nestled in a far corner.

"What?" Isaac didn't dare look at the other tanks; chances are he'd find much the same thing. Instead he carefully peered over her shoulder while she tapped away at the keys.

"I'm not sure exactly. But it looks like someone has been…Experimenting on the, necromorphs. There are a few mentions of evolution in these files, but most of it's corrupted, and I can't tell what exactly that means."

The engineer spared another glance towards the tanks. "Could they have known about these things before they attacked the ship?"

"Hard to say. There isn't enough data here to judge."

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Isaac and Tali both whipped around as a third voice suddenly joined the conversation, both raising their weapons as they scanned the room. Finally the pair located the source, namely someone staring at them through a observation window.

The engineer finally lowered his weapon upon realizing the man wasn't armed, and didn't look like one of the creatures they'd faced so far. "A survivor?" He heard Tali ask, though the man didn't respond, Isaac noted he was staring intently at the tank behind them, what appeared to be awe evident in his expression.

"My finest work!" He suddenly proclaimed a hand gesturing towards the tank. "Amazing, isn't it?"

"You…Created that thing?" Isaac asked, his gaze snapping to the tank before returning. "You made those things out there!" He nodded towards the door, indicating the ship.

"Not all of them, no." The man began to pace back and forth as he spoke. He continued speaking, though most of it was either in whispers to low for them to hear or was almost incoherent.

A few words did make it through though as he rambled. And Isaac felt his apprehension growing. "Those things are killing everyone! Why the hell are you doing experiments on them?"

"Their not killing! Don't you see? Their our future!"

"You're insane! These monsters have slaughtered everyone aboard, and you act like it's a miracle!" Tali objected. Resulting in the man sighing heavily as he began tapping away at a keyboard.

"It's a shame you cannot embrace the truth. You'll learn in time however…If you live long enough to see it." Isaac heard a barely audible gulp from the quarian. And he knew she had the same fear he did.

As if on cue, a loud thud drew their attention back to the tank, followed by another as the creature within began to squirm and twitch, it's head firmly focused on them, it's eyes blazing with hunger as it bashed against the glass and tried to get out.

"What the he-" Isaac spun around to demand an explanation from the man, but he was gone, obviously having run off during the distraction.

A second later a loud smash drew him back to the situation at hand. Water began to flood the room as the glass cracked and finally shattered under the creatures assault, and with a loud snarl it shoved its way through the remains of the tank, several jagged shards bit into its flesh and drew blood, but it didn't seem to notice, or care.

With another snarl the necromorph suddenly leapt towards them.

* * *

Another necromorph collapsed to the deck as a shotgun blast severed its leg. And silence consumed the bridge, save the rapid breathing of the two surviving soldiers.

Hammond quietly reloaded his rifle as the lights returned to normal. That was becoming a rather annoying, but regular occurrence on the ship. Why exactly the ship could recognize the things as dangerous and activate a quarantine, but not contain them on a different deck was beyond him.

"We can't just stand here killing these things all fucking day! I'm almost out of clips." Jack growled as she reloaded her shotgun. "I hope you've got a plan? Preferably one that doesn't involve us dying?"

He was silent for a moment as he considered their options. The bridge was to open, and with the main doors ripped apart there was no way to seal it. But with Shepard still down and out, there wasn't anywhere they could go. They still didn't know her condition and it would be impossible to move her safely to another part of the ship.

Unless…

He spared a glance towards the elevator he'd come up previously. There wasn't anything down there save a few escape pods and one of the ships ADS cannons. But the corridors were narrow, and there was a few doors they could override and lockdown in-between them and the bridge. The problem was, if they went down, they'd be locking themselves in a one way corridor, the only way out being to fight through whatever came looking for them.

"It's better then nothing." He finally conceded. "Come on, we need to get Shepard to the elevator."

* * *

"Come on, come on…Yes!" Miranda allowed herself a triumphant smile as she finally bested whoever was screwing with there communications. It wouldn't last forever, but at leas they had their comm. channel back for a while.

"Garrus, Thane…Jack, anyone still out there?" It had been a while since she'd heard from anyone else, and even with the comms fixed she was nervous about what she'd discover. Was anyone still alive?

Finally a voice broke the tense silence. "Miranda? Damn it's good to hear from you. What happened?" Jacob's voice answered her, and the Cerberus agent breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm not sure, a lockdown or something kicked in and separated me and the others. Even after it lifted they were gone, I haven't seen them since…Plus someone's been jamming our communications."

"I noticed. Do you have any idea where you are? Were still in one piece, so far we've gotten lucky and avoided whatever attacked you and Shepard's team." Miranda hesitated for a moment as she did a mental checklist of the squads.

Shepard, Jack and Tali had been the first team, her, Garrus and Thane had been the second. And Mordin, Jacob and Zaeed had been the third. The rest were on standby to join the fight at a moments notice, but with everything that had happened, even Miranda was reluctant to call for help.

"I'm not sure, not far from where we split up I think. I'll see if I can locate a map or something." She responded, before drawing her pistol. She had a feeling that she wouldn't last long on her own, so the sooner she got moving the better.

"Any word from Shepard's team?"

The agent paused for a long moment. When she finally summed up the nerve to answer, she was painfully aware at how weak her voice sounded. "I managed to contact Jack briefly…She said Shepard was…" She trailed off, luckily she didn't need to elaborate further.

"Damn it. Tali, Shepard, Garrus and Thane too probably…This mission is going to hell, and fast."

* * *

Tali flinched as she brought the plasma cutter up and fired her first shot, the recoil was worse then she'd anticipated. And she almost jarred her shoulder from the recoil. She briefly wondered how the hell Isaac could use it without hassles.

A quick glance confirmed her thoughts though, he was wearing some form of advanced armour plating, the armour was probably padded and absorbed it better then her suit.

Gritting her teeth, she fired again as the engineer joined in. The creature stumbled and finally collapsed as she adjusted her arm and severed one of its arms at the shoulder. It didn't even acknowledge the wound as it staggered back to its feet and leapt at her again.

Isaac was faster however and managed to fire again, this round cutting it's leg off at the knee and sending it face first into the deck. Tali didn't bother aiming and simply fired another three rounds into it, before moving back to avoid retaliation, even from its position on the ground it still had one bladed arm it could use. Another shot from Isaac removed that threat and finally the creature, with a loud howl, stopped moving.

"Who was that?" Tali managed to ask between gasps as she fought to catch her breath. She spared a glance towards the observation window, the man was long gone, not that she was surprised.

"Don't know. But I'm guessing he had something to do with this mess." The quarian nodded slightly as she spared the corpse at her feet another glance.

"There's nothing we can use in here. Lets keep moving." She nodded again as he led the way to the door. It only took a moment to override the lockdown and open it.

Tali was almost out the door, when a loud crack made her jump, the sound was followed by another and she slowly turned to face the room once again, clearly another one of those things was waking up.

The sound, she realized with a gasp was coming from the one they'd already killed, and with a loud snapping of bones, a scythe like arm suddenly burst out of the shattered remains of it's shoulder, a second later it's newly replaced limb slammed into the ground and it slowly stood, it's missing leg getting the same treatment as it righted itself.

"Isaac…" She hissed, causing the engineer to turn around as well.

As it finished regenerating and turned to face them, he said the one word that was on both there minds. "Run!"


	8. Chapter Eight

The environment around them was a blur as Isaac and Tali moved as fast as they could through the corridors, the tank bred nightmare always just a few steps behind them.

Tali slowed very slightly as she whipped around and blindly fired several rounds from her cutter, whether by luck or skill, she managed to sever one of the monsters legs before breaking into a sprint once again. Her arm was aching from the constant abuse the weapons recoil afforded, but she didn't have any other choice, of course the damned thing would just get up and keep moving, it's limbs somehow regenerating every time. But that didn't mean she was just going to run away until it gave up.

If the thing gave up, she corrected herself, already she could hear the thudding of its heavy footsteps behind them.

She was vaguely aware that they'd passed through the operating theatre again, but by the time she'd noted this, they'd already passed through it and were on there way down another corridor. "We can't keep…Running like this." Tali panted as another door came into view.

Once they were through, she stopped and activated her Omni-tool. IF she could just seal the door…

She felt Isaac grab her shoulder and try to pull her away, but she swiftly shrugged the human off and kept working. "Where are we going to run?" She snapped as she madly tried to override the door controls. "Sooner or later we'll hit a dead end, and that'll be the end of us! Just give me a few-"

She was interrupted by the necromorph storming around the corner and charging towards them. Isaac, knowing he couldn't get her away from her task, opened fire and did his best t slow it down.

Just as it reached the doorway, it slammed shut, easily cutting one of its arms off –not that it would help in the long run – and giving them a solid steel barrier for protection. "That was close…Nice work." Isaac said after a moment, before finally lowering his weapon, had Tali been watching, she'd have noticed his hands shaking very slightly. That thing had been less then a second away from bisecting him after all.

Nodding slightly, she spared the door a glance as a loud bang was heard on the other side, before moving back a step. "Thanks, but somehow I don't think that'll keep it out for long."

"Let's just hope there isn't another way out of that part of the medical wing."

* * *

"I'm telling you, I heard something in the vent!"

"And I'm telling you, you're bloody paranoid! I didn't hear anything…"

"No, nothing at all. Maybe imagination. Dark corridors and flickering lights affecting mind. Making you think you hear things that isn't there."

Jacob barely resisted continuing the argument; he knew what he'd heard. And it hadn't been his imagination. He was probably just the only one actually listening for any sign of danger. Instead of pressing the issue though, he simply shrugged and kept moving. "Whatever, keep you're eyes open, who knows what's lurking in the dark."

By some miracle, they'd managed to avoid the creatures infesting the ship, though at the same time had wondered aimlessly through the ship and failed to find much of anything.

The best they'd been able to discover was they were on the engineering deck. Though beyond that they were just searching for anyone still alive. "I doubt mercs did this. If it was though, then their sick bastards." Zaeed muttered as they carefully picked their way around another corpse, this one missing his legs and by the looks most of his internal organs.

"Fascinating." Jacob spared a glance towards Mordin, who was rapidly typing away at his Omni-tool while examining the body intently.

"Uh huh…Well, call it what you will, it's still a horrible way to go." The Cerberus soldier commented as he looked away from the corpse. "Jeeze, this place is a mess. Hard to think well find anyone still alive."

Mordin finished his examination and nodded slightly. "Of course. Maybe others had better luck. Maybe incident is confined to engineering. Or maybe other parts of the ship are better equipped for whatever is happening. Hard to say without further inspection."

Jacob paused for a moment, before shaking his head and deciding not to respond. He always had a hard time following the salarian's rapid fire speech.

"Well, if were not going to find any survivors, what's the point of still being here?" Zaeed asked as he swept the corridor ahead, his eyes narrowed slightly as he did his best to see through the flickering lights.

"It's not like we have anywhere else to go, we've been searching this deck for an hour now, give or take, and still haven't found an elevator or even stairs." Jacob replied calmly, his eyes darting to his Omni-tool for a moment before focusing back on the mercenary. "I've been doing my best to build a map of the ship, but it's not easy, all these damn corridors look the same!"

"Don't waste you're time mate. It'd be easier to carve it into the damn walls…Least that way we'd have a point of reference if we got turned around though." Zaeed offered a clearly fake smile at this point. Mordin however was rambling something about finding tools strong enough to cut through steel, bullets after all were precious and couldn't be wasted.

"Hello?" The squad halted as an unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke over their comms. "Hello is anyone hearing this?" It was a woman's voice, that much was certain. They exchanged a confused glance, before Jacob moved a hand to his ear to respond.

"Yeah we hear you…Who are you, and how exactly did you pick up on this channel?"

"It wasn't easy, I've been trying to get a hold of you for about twenty minutes now…The names Kendra, Kendra Daniels…" The soldier glanced about the corridor, chances are they'd need to find her, but he had no idea where they were.

"A survivor? About bloody time!" Zaeed commented as he joined the conversation.

"I suppose that's one way of putting it. Our ship was destroyed shortly after docking; I'm stuck here, as I presume you are at this point." Kendra responded, Jacob was only slightly surprised by the fact that she sounded so calm and collected, considering what they'd seen so far, it was a miracle hearing a survivor that wasn't hysterical.

"The Normandy is still docked and in one piece, last time I heard anyway." Jacob responded. A moment later he arched an eyebrow when he heard a relieved sigh from the other end of the channel. "Wait a minute, you said *our* ship…There's more survivors on board?"

"Yes, at least two others, though I haven't had contact with Hammond for a while now. I think the important thing right now is trying to get the hell off this nightmare, before we end up dead, or worse."

"Alright, we need to find a couple of our squad. Afterwards we can get out of here." Jacob said as he started moving again, his free hand straying to his pistol as they started moving once again.

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple. The Ishimura's orbit is beginning to decay. If we don't stabilize it first, then you're ship will just get pulled in along with it." Kendra sighed again, and Jacob was able to just pick up on her tapping away at a keyboard. "Luckily I've been able to pinpoint you're location. I can tell you where to go, but I'll need you're help."

"Were not engineer's girl. We can't fix the damned engines." Zaeed commented, a faint hint of anger lacing his words.

"You don't need to be!" Kendra responded before he could say anything more. "The important thing is the engines are out of fuel. I can handle the rest of the details. But I'll need you to get the fuel supply flowing again." The squad shared another glance, before Jacob responded.

"Alright, where do we go?"

* * *

 

"Think you can use this?" Isaac asked as he held up a small box labelled *thermite*

"Umm…Maybe, what is it?" The engineer tilted his head slightly at the question, before giving a brief rundown of its properties and uses. Luckily she seemed to pick up on something he didn't, as the quarian nodded eagerly after a few moments. "Yeah, I should be able to make use of it to cut through the barricade." With a nod Isaac passed her the box before nodding towards the door of the supply closet they'd ended up in.

"Come on, lets keep moving. If that…Thing made it out of the labs, I'd rather stick around to see it." He said quietly, before lifting his plasma cutter and moving to the door. He wasn't about to open the door without taking proper precautions.

The corridor beyond was empty, thankfully, and they set off once again. 'Now then, do we need anything else? Or will you be able to work with that?" Tali shook her head.

"No, I can use this. With a little work it should be a powerful enough explosive." Isaac nodded slightly to confirm he heard her, before leading the way back through the twisting corridors. Luckily he had a good enough sense of direction not to lead them to astray, not to mention his guide system was still active and pointed them straight if they got lost.

A few minutes later, the pair were halted by a door, one they'd passed through only a short while ago. Tali's wrist lit up as she activated her computer, and Isaac simply stood back to let her work, she was faster then him on getting these things done.

Not this time though. After a few moments she mumbled a curse and stepped back, the glow vanishing. "The door controls aren't responding. It must have been locked down from elsewhere!"

"Damn it!" Isaac paused for a moment, before sparing a glance over his shoulder. "We'll have to find another way back." He paused for a second longer, before activating the holographic system on his rig. As the map flickered into life, he noted that, once again Tali jumped back a step, before inching forwards, seemingly focused more on the holographic systems, then the map itself.

Scanning the page, he indicated another path. "We can cut through this lab, and get back to the main entrance," He slowly traced a finger along the map as he studied the path. "Hell…"

'What?" Tali's attention shifted to the map as well, though he cut it off before she could see the problem.

"Nothing. Nothing at all…" Isaac lied, they would have to cut through another lab to get out, a lab he really didn't want to see. Not considering what they'd seen so far…

* * *

"Keelah! What, is this place?" Tali asked a few minutes later as they passed through another lab, she had a feeling this is what Isaac had been worried about. Instead of the tables like she'd seen before, all this room contained was strange tanks inset into the walls.

Closer inspection revealed what appeared to be, humans, tiny humans if she were to hazard a guess they were. "Children." Isaac said, confirming her thoughts. "This is another part of the labs…Cloning tanks I think." He finished, painfully aware of the horrified way the quarian was staring at him.

"So many of them…This is…Wrong." She stumbled back a pace from the tanks. "Why would you lock them up like this? Some kind of cruel experiement?"

"If I find a scientist, I'll be sure to ask what exactly their doing here. Like I said, cloning possibly, it IS a research vessel after all." He shook his head slightly; he wasn't too fond of this place either. The engineer had passed through it briefly before running into Tali.

"And this one is…Empty for a reason I assume?" Before she could blink Isaac was on her shoulder and staring at the strangely empty tank as well.

"It wasn't when I was here a while ago…" He trailed off as the soft padding of footsteps drew their gaze to the still open door.

The sound stopped after a few moments, and luckily nothing came through it. The pair glanced towards each other, then back to the door as Isaac took a slow step forwards, his cutter slowly lifting as he approached.

The engineer stepped forwards and peered out into the corridor, a second later he stepped back and shrugged. "Nothing out here. Maybe it ra-" Tali almost yelped as he lifted his cutter again and aimed it at her.

"What the-" She didn't have time to protest as the first shot rang out and she instinctively closed her eyes. The pain she anticipated didn't come however. Instead she heard a loud squeal of pain and spun around, her eyes snapping open as she moved.

Clinging to the wall behind her was, what appeared to be one of the children in the tank, though its skin was sickly green, and it's back had been ripped open as a trio of tentacle like appendages flailed about, likely from the attempt to dig into her neck. A second shot ran out and one of the tentacles was ripped in half, the creature cried out again, before dropping off the wall and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Before Tali could act, it leapt towards her. Just in time for a third shot to strike it in the side and knock it off course to slam into the wall instead.

Finally, it struck the deck once again, and stopped moving. Isaac put another plasma round into it for good measure before replacing the power pack. "Okay…So now we know where the kid went…"


	9. Chapter Nine

With the new threat dealt with, Isaac was quick to put the tanks behind them and keep moving. He spared a glance about the room as the swiftly made their way through it, and noted with a mounting sense of dread that several other tanks were empty as well.

He didn't mention this to Tali however; he could tell by her rapid breaths that she was still getting over almost losing her head to the first one. The last thing she needed to hear was that there were  _more_  of them on the loose.

For now he simply put the room behind them and kept going, another quick scan of the map revealed they would have to go through several other labs and rooms, but luckily it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Ordinary. Ha! Aboard the Ishimura that was probably the last thing you could say.

"This day just keeps getting stranger, doesn't it?" He finally commented as they passed through another lab. This one full of what appeared to random research equipment that he didn't recognize. "First I get sent to fix a ship full of crazy, zombie like creatures that want to rip me to pieces. And then I run into you." He chuckled as he thought about it. A few hours ago he'd have called himself crazy for saying that. But now though, he wouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.

"I suppose, strange is one way of looking at it." Tali muttered in response, a quiet sigh escaping her as she spared a glance through a window and into a nearby room, he could tell by the way she averted her gaze that it wasn't pretty on the other side.

The lab passed by swiftly enough, and led into, what a surprise, another corridor. Luckily he had a map and the guide system built into his rig to keep him from getting lost.

"I'm really getting tired of these corridors. Couldn't you're people find a different means of connecting the rooms, or at least a decorate them so they don't all look the same?" Tali commented, Isaac simply smiled at this.

"I'm sure the crew could navigate their respective decks with their eyes closed. But I do agree, a little change here and there would be…Nice." He trailed off as they reached another door and he began the process of opening it. A warning blinked on the display however, and he stopped a moment later.

"Hell…Tell me you're suits sealed?" Isaac glanced over his shoulder, and Tali shrugged slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"The area on the other side. It's damaged or something, no atmosphere. So unless you're suits sealed you'll be dead the second I hit the open button." He watched as she tapped in a command on her wrist computer, before nodding slightly.

"Okay, ready." Isaac nodded, before taking a deep breath and finishing the override. A second later the door slid open with a loud hiss as the oxygen on their side was sucked out into the vacuum.

"Damn..." He'd expected a hull breach, but it looked like a good chunk of the ship had been ripped apart. Most of the wall was shattered and pieces of debris lazily floated as they carefully advanced. Luckily for Isaac, his rig automatically locked him to the floor so he wouldn't float away.

He kept one eye on Tali however, the last thing he needed was her floating off or something. "Looks like an asteroid struck the hull." He commented. Most of the outer wall was gone, and the interior had been thrown about as a result, luckily he was still able to pick a path through the remains and towards the door on the other side.

"Isaac…I don't think were alone out here." He heard Tali whisper, And his hand tightened it's grip on his cutter as she scanned the floating wreckage. "I saw something moving."

"No offense, but every thing's moving." The engineer replied, though he still glanced about the area, he doubted she would have mistaken a piece of ship for a threat, her tone suggested she was sure of what she'd seen.

A second later he felt something slam into him from behind. The engineer grunted as it knocked the breath from his lungs, somehow he managed to keep his feet on the deck and avoid getting knocked out into space.

Shaking off the shock from the sudden attack, he shifted his arm back and slammed his elbow into whatever was on his back, he didn't know the result, the lack of atmosphere left no sound at all, but he felt his arm strike something.

Before he could lash out again, he felt something bite into his neck. Ordinarily he wouldn't have worried and shook it off, but considering they were in vacuum. If the damn thing punctured his rig…

He flinched as a flash dazzled him, followed by another and finally the thing let go. Ignoring the pain in his neck, he whipped around and brought his own cutter up, before swiftly severing the monsters head with a blind shot.

His free hand leapt to where he'd been bitten out of instinct, though he knew that if it had punctured the armour, he wouldn't be alive right now. Without pause he fired another shot and the thing stopped moving.

He was only briefly surprised to discover it was yet another monster, one he hadn't encountered before. Unlike the ones they'd faced previously, this one lacked legs, but instead had a scorpion like stinger in their place. "What the…Hell? On second thought…I don't want to know." He muttered, before setting off for the door once again, where there was one, there would be more. And he wasn't about to hang around and wait for them.

Already he was gasping as the air in his rig trickled away. "You okay Tali?" He glanced over his shoulder once again, and managed a relieved sigh when he discovered she was still following him.

"I'm more worried about you. Did it-"

"No, it didn't break the seal." He cut her off as he tapped in the command to override the door and swiftly stumbled through into the next room. A moment later the door silently shut.

Everything came rushing back so fast it made the engineer jump. All of a sudden the air around them was hissing as the atmosphere was restored, the creaking of the hull, his own ragged breathing and the clunking of his boots, all sound instantly returned as the room stabilized.

Once he caught his breath, he removed his hand from his neck and examined his glove. No blood, good. With a flick of his wrist the guide system activated and pointed them in the right direction. "Come on. We still have to get to the barricade."

* * *

Jacob's team, with Kendra's guidance, slowly made their way through the engineering deck and towards the refuelling station. Unfortunately for them, they'd run into a few snags.

Namely broken transport platform. "What the heck does this even mean?" Zaeed grumbled as he pointed to the screen. "Use kinesis? Can't we just reprogram the system or something?"

"It means," Kendra's voice came over the comm. once again, and she sounded less then happy. "That you'll need to use you're kinesis module to drag the transport to the station so it can reset."

Silence followed the response as the trio all shared confused glances. "Yeah, we don't have one of those." Jacob finally said with a shrug, he knew the woman couldn't see him, but he made the gesture regardless.

"What? How coul- never mind, you'll have to find one or think of another way to get that platform back over to you."

"Biotics maybe? Could use them to pull platform. Maybe override controls and reset system that way. Find this, module is another option. Time consuming though. Time not on our side." Mordin rambled on for a few moments. Jacob easily tuned him out as he focused on the platform.

"This shouldn't' be to hard, lets just hope it's not locked in place." The soldier said as the familiar blue haze surrounded him. A moment later he extended a hand and a burst of energy left his fingertips. Luckily the platform wasn't locked, and with a flick of his wrist he brought it slowly towards them. It was harder then yanking an enemy out of cover, but it still worked the same way, in a fashion.

A few moments later the platform locked in place and the trio awkwardly shuffled aboard. "Not exactly big. Doubt it's meant for more than a person or two." Jacob mumbled as he tapped the button to get it moving.

"Lets just hope were not over the weight limit and it breaks down. I really don't want to have to call the commander for help." Zaeed grumbled as it slowly moved towards the opposite end of the cavernous bay. Jacob briefly considered reminding the mercenary that Shepard wasn't going to be rescuing anyone, but he swiftly silenced himself.

* * *

Miranda had, luckily found a map of the ship and located where she was. Somehow she'd ended up close to the bridge. With communications restored she was able to hear parts of the other team's conversations and knew she was well and truly on her own.

Jacob and the others were on the opposite end of the ship. Tali she'd only heard briefly before her comm. cut off. And Jack had told her where she was. And that was her goal.

Along the way she hoped to find her former squad mates. Though considering it had been quite some time since they'd been separated, she'd given up hope of finding them in one piece.

She was swiftly proven wrong however, as her path cut through a storage closet.

She paid little attention to the shelves littered with various medical supplies and storage crates. It was obvious it hadn't been touched in a while.

What had caught her eye however, was the blood trail. She wouldn't have normally cared, considering how many bodies and blood she'd seen just in the few rooms she'd made her way through.

The reason it caught her eye however, was the fact it wasn't red like a humans, it was blue. Turian blood.

The Cerberus agent tensed slightly when a dull clang sounded a few feet away and a container of some sort rolled out from behind a wall and into view. Bringing her pistol up, she carefully advanced towards shelf.

She held some hope as she noted the blood trail led around the corner. Though she still kept her weapon at the ready as she rounded the corner.

A moment later she was greeted by a rather battered Garrus aiming his rifle back at her. The ailen's back was pressed to the wall, and judging by the blood stain on it he'd slid down into a sitting position at some point. His free hand was pressed against his stomach, and she could see blood coating his gauntlet, presumably from the same injury that left the trail. "Miranda?' The turian lowered his weapon upon realizing it was her, and she did the same.

"You look like hell…More so then usual." She mumbled as she holstered her pistol and carefully sunk to one knee next to him. "Where's Thane?"

"Don't know exactly. Not long after we got separated, we ran into more of those, things." Garrus' expression brightened a little as Miranda set to work applying medi-gel to his injuries. His armour was damaged, and he presumed the automated first-aid system was disabled as a result.

"Damn thing…Took a swing at me, exploded a second later. I got beat up pretty badly and Thane dragged me into this storage room." He shook his head slightly at this point. "I told him to go find you once we realized communications were down."

"Wait, you're practically dead and he left you alone?"

"I've had worse." Miranda rolled her eyes as the turian offered his equivalent of a smile. "Took a bit of convincing, but it was stay here and wait for me to recover, or go find you and come back. I haven't seen him since."

"Damn it, can you move? This place isn't going to stay safe for long." Miranda slowly stood once again and offered a hand to Garrus, who accepted it and slowly pulled himself upright.

"Yeah, yeah I can walk." With a nod, the agent brought a hand up to her ear and activated her comm.

"Thane, I've found Garrus, where are you?"

* * *

Tali, once again fell into step behind Isaac as they set off through the corridors. She wasn't sure whether to be grateful or worried by the fact that the rooms here were different. Instead of the same steel walls floor and ceiling. The walls now had windows that peered into the different rooms, though she couldn't say this was much better.

The first room they passed appeared to be a recovery room of some sort. Several beds were spaced out along the walls and medical devices such as heartbeat monitors and other tools were placed next to them.

"This should be the…Intensive care wing." Isaac commented as he spared a glance into the room as well.

"Incredible...One ship of yours, has all the capabilities of the entire flotilla…" Tali commented, awestruck by even the few parts she'd seen so far. Research, medical, and accommodation. Plus Isaac had commented it had a crew of thousands aboard.

"True." The engineer shrugged slightly. "But as you've seen, it's all to easy for these, aliens, to overtake the entire vessel, every deck and crew member. If it was spaced out across several ships, maybe this wouldn't have happened."

The quarian hesitated for a moment, before nodding. Memories of the Alarei briefly darkening her thoughts before she could quell them. If her entire race had been aboard just one ship when that incident had happened…

A shiver passed through her at that, though she was swiftly pulled away from her memories as Isaac lead them through a door and into another expansive room. This one, well she didn't know what to think of it.

It appeared to be split into two. The center of the room being a massive wall with only a small gap on the right hand side, presumably for them to get past. However a massive tank, like the ones she'd seen previously, only larger dominated the space and blocked their path.

On the left was a room, though judging by the warning on the door, a lockdown was in effect. "Looks like a dead end." Tali muttered bitterly as she finished her examination, there was another floor above them, but no means of getting to it from here.

She was in the process of turning around when Isaac spoke. "Not quite." Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted him approaching the tank, and after a moment decided to follow. Maybe there was a means to move it?

'Hmm…It's not locked in place…This should be easy to move." The engineer muttered as he paused to examine his glove.

"How exactly are you going to-" Before she could finish he extended his hand and a flash of light sparked from his fingers. Blinking away the after images, she was surprised to see what appeared to be electricity arching of his fingers and striking the tank.

Slowly he shifted his hand, and the tank moved along with his motions. Within moments he'd slid it out of the way and cut the connection. "Problem solved." He commented with a slight smirk, or so Tali assumed by the tone of voice.

"What…Why didn't you mention you were a biotic!" She demanded, shock giving way to annoyance as she studied Isaac. If he was a biotic surely he could have used those talents earlier, namely when fighting the necromorphs.

"Biotic? What the heck are you talking about?" He asked as he spun to face her, his head angling slightly to show the confusion he couldn't express due to his helmet.

"You just moved that, tank!" She waved a hand towards it. "Without touching it or using some sort of computer? There's no other explanation."

His head was still tilted as he lifted his hand to show the glowing pack connected to his wrist. "It's kinesis module. The crew use them for heavy lifting. What do you mean by biotic?"

Tali was silent for a long moment, before she simply shook her head. "Keelah…I'll explain later. Once were in a safer place and have the time to discuss it." This human was getting stranger and stranger by the damn second it seemed.

Isaac offered a nod after a moment, he knew it'd be pointless to push the issue, and instead set off once again. "Okay. Seems like we have a lot to talk about once this mess is over…That is if were still alive at that point."

The quarian intended to make a comment about *not being reassuring* however she was silenced when a moan of what sounded like pain drew their attention back to the room ahead of them.

Both raised their weapons as they stepped past the section the tank had been blocking and entered the second half of the room. Another pained groan came from up ahead, and the pair exchanged a glance before moving out from behind the wall and into view of whatever was making the noise.

A gasp escaped Tali as she caught sight of the source of the noise. Namely a human, one of the crew she assumed, stuck fast to the wall by some form of organic growth.

A hand moved to her mask as she studied him further. His stomach had been cut open by something, she assumed one of the bladed creatures they'd faced previously, and most of his internal organs were left expensed to the air of the ship. "This is sick…" She heard Isaac mutter. "What the hell could have done this?"

She was afraid to try and response, just the sight of the poor soul was turning her stomach. In the end she simply looked away in a vain attempt to banish the image from her mind.

A second later however she was dragged by to the grizzly sight as she heard person groan. "Keelah, he's still…Alive?" Sure enough, it's head lifted slightly and it's eyes slowly cracked open at the sound of her voice.

"Okay, now THIS is sick." Isaac growled as he slowly drifted closer, and Tali gasped again when he lifted his plasma cutter. She knew what he was planning, a quick, painless death. It was no more then they deserved.

Despite her rapidly building nausea, Tali followed him as he approached. "How exactly are they still alive, after all this?" She asked quietly.

"Help me…Please…" The figure's head shifted slightly to regard them and Tali shivered at the pain she saw in his eyes. After a moment she looked away.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do…" Isaac finally said, his voice emotionless and monotone as he lifted his cutter and lined up the laser sights with the persons head. A quick shot, a clean death…

Before he could pull the trigger however, they were both caught off guard as the crew member suddenly howled in pain, and started thrashing. Before either could act, a series of tentacles burst out the hole in his stomach and lashed out towards them.

Tali barely managed to leap back a step, one of the tentacles missing her visor by a mere inch. Without pause she brought her cutter up and fired until the power pack clicked empty and the weapon refused to fire.

As she stumbled back further to put some distance between her and the threat, she caught sight of Isaac out of the corner of her eye. He was desperately trying to reload and dodge the tentacles at the same time.

Sadly he wasn't quick enough. And before Tali could warn him, one of the appendages lashed out and struck the side of his helmet. A second later he slammed into the deck a few feet away and didn't get up.

"Isaac!" With little other choice, the quarian focused her attention back on the creature. It took only a few shots to sever the writhing tentacles and upon their death, the human fell limp as well.

Tali cringed as she lowered her weapon. It was bad enough going through the abuse he'd suffered, but being used as a weapon as well?

She spared another glance towards Isaac. Who still hadn't moved. "Isaac?" She set her weapon down and carefully rolled the engineer onto his back "Keelah, Isaac!" She couldn't tell what condition he was in thanks to the armour he wore. The only thing she could tell thanks to the breather unit was that he was in fact still breathing. As the quiet rasps every few seconds proved.


	10. Chapter Ten

"What the hell is, that?" Jacob shifted slightly when he heard Zaeed speak, his gaze had, up till that point been focused on the control panel of the small platform they were using to cross the cavernous section of the ship.

Glancing up, he noted they were getting close to the other side, and thankfully the smoke that masked most of the chamber had lessened somewhat as well.

What had drawn the mercenary's gaze was readily apparent. As a trio of humanoid like creatures shuffled into view and waited for the platform to arrive. "Don't know…But they don't look friendly." The soldier mumbled as he turned his gaze back to the platform and began tapping away at the console. "Damn, I can't stop the platform."

He heard Zaeed draw his rifle, and a hand instinctively jumped to his pistol as he turned back to face the creatures. The first of the creatures bared its teeth as they came closer, it's scythe blade like arms twitching in anticipation. The second was much the same, though it held back, clearly less eager to be within line of sight, and in turn run the risk of getting shot.

The third however was different. It was taller the others and seemed almost human, save for the fact that it was deathly thin and gaunt, hardly any meat on its bones. Its head lolled slightly to one side as it regarded them, and Jacob couldn't shake the sense that its head was barely hanging on.

The real problem however was less what was waiting for them, and more the fact that the platform was mere seconds away from connecting and allowing those, things to get within striking distance.

"We got two choices. We either start shooting, or we wait and see if their friendly…" Zaeed commented as he took aim at the lead creature.

"Recommend extermination. They do not appear friendly, dangerous. Best we not take chances." Mordin pitched in, and after a moment brought his own weapon to bear.

Jacob hesitated for a moment longer, before nodding. "Better not risk it. Open fire!" The words barely left his lips, before the others did just that. The first monster howled in rage as the bullets ripped through its flesh and bone. Within seconds it collapsed.

The second scythe armed creature darted behind a support beam and managed to avoid taking any major hits. The third however simply held its ground as the platform docked and the metal barrier lifted. As soon as the obstacle was out of the way it charged forwards, only to get ripped apart by the trio's combined fire.

"Well, that wasn't so bad…" Zaeed commented smugly as the creature's head rolled to a stop less then a inch from his foot. "Whatever these goddamn things are, they sure can't take a hit."

"Don't be so sure. It was one of these things that took out the commander no doubt." Jacob reminded him as he replaced the thermal clip in his pistol and scanned the catwalk ahead of them. "Besides, that third one got away…And who knows how many more are lurking in the smoke and shadows."

"If there's more. We'll shoot it just like we did this one." The mercenary growled as he nudged the severed head with his foot. "Ugly bastards aren't they?"

"Looks human, lacking most of its skin, down to muscle and bone. Curious, looks like most of its internal organs are missing or no longer functioning. Wonder how it still functions." Mordin had found his way to the gaunt creature's remains, and naturally tuned everything else out as he examined the corpse.

"That sounds strange. But how about we study it, after were done stopping the ship from crashing into the planet below?" Zaeed spared the corpse a glance, before stepping around it.

Mordin appeared ready to argue, though a second later he simply nodded and followed along behind. Neither of them noticed the things head twitching slightly as its eyes followed them.

Jacob kept his pistol at the ready as they reached the support pillar the second creature had vanished behind. A quick check ensured it was long gone, a few spots of blood on the grated floor being the only indication of its direction. "Okay, ones still on the loose. Best we don't hang around here to long and wait for it to bring friends."

"True, but how exactly are we supposed to get the fuel pumping again?" Jacob shrugged slightly, much to Zaeed's annoyance.

To answer their question however, Kendra naturally chose that moment to rejoin the conversation. "There should be two consoles down there. One near where you are now, and the other back across the platform, I'll work on overriding the doors, for now, find the terminal and get things working on that side."

They shared a brief glance, before setting off along the path the necromorph had used to escape. None of them liked the idea of not only following it so directly, but also putting themselves in a vulnerable position. After all the floor was a simple metal grate, anything could be lurking beneath them waiting for a shot. And the roof was just another, higher catwalk, giving another perfect ambush location. Not to mention the constant gaps where one support pillar ended and a long, dark gap presented itself, before it was blocked by another pillar.

Now and again they heard the clanging of foot on metal above them, or the scraping of scythe talons along a support pillar. Though the creatures always remained on the edge of their vision. The shadow of something vanishing from sight, or the gleam of pale eyes that stared at them hungrily, before vanishing into the darkness.

Not even Mordin dared speak as they picked their way along the catwalks and eventually towards the first fuel pump.

'This is it." Jacob nodded slightly as Kendra confirmed their find. With out pause, he grabbed the handle and dragged it down into position.

With a satisfactory click it locked, and a moment later the group heard machinery activating around them. "That's got it. Now let's find the other one and get the hell out of here." Zaeed nodded slightly as he spoke back the way they'd come.

They barely had enough time to turn around, before a loud howl revibrated off the walls and caused the squad to whip around, weapons rising as they scanned the area ahead of them. "This is probably the worst place for an ambush." Jacob growled as he checked the display on his pistol and tapped in the command for incendiary rounds. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mordin doing the same.

"Not like we can just ask them to postpone the ambush until we find a better spot. So shut up and shoot!" Zaeed snapped as the first necromorph appeared around the corner. The only path off the tiny platform the fuel pump was located on.

* * *

"Keelah, I hate you, so much right, now!" Tali whined as she carefully dragged the still unconscious Isaac towards the nearby door. After she'd ensured he was still alive and relatively uninjured, the next problem came in the form of trying to find some place safe for him to recover. Leaving the engineer out in the middle of the medical wing was hardly a smart move.

She soon discovered this was almost impossible however. On one hand he was dead weight in this state. On the other his armour must had weighed a ton, or more. Tali was by no means weak, but that didn't mean this task was any easier.

Much cursing later, she finally managed to move him to the door, hacked it open, and after ensuring its only occupant was dead, and wasn't about to leap back to his feet, she dragged Isaac into the room and propped him up against the opposite wall.

The quarian paused for a moment, before tapping in another command on her Omni-tool. A second later a orange orb flickered into life next to her, and a few button presses later it hovered out into the corridor. Satisfied that the drone would keep them safe, she locked the door for added measure.

"Now what the heck do I do? Isaac could be out for a while…" She muttered quietly, her gaze briefly darting back to the engineer, before returning to the door. Maybe if she could find some medical supplies…No, it wasn't safe to leave the room...

"What to do, what to do?" She mumbled, before finally trying her luck with the comms, It was hopeless, but at least it would prove to be a distraction for a few moments.

* * *

"Alright, we'll hold here. Miranda out." The Cerberus agent shut her comm. off and focused on Garrus, who was looking, better, she guessed. She really couldn't read his expression that well, though his shoulders weren't slumped, and he wasn't breathing quite as heavily, that had to be a good sign.

"Thane's on his way. Luckily he wasn't far away." She informed the turian, who simply nodded. Once the assassin rejoined them, they could head for either Engineering, or the bridge. Miranda wasn't sure which path Garrus would want to take, but she was set on the bridge, she had to see Shepard for herself.

"Where to from here? I haven't had any contact with the rest of the squad since we were separated." Vakarian asked as he checked over his armour and rifle. Luckily his shields had taken the majority of the blow and aside from a few minor damages that could be fixed in a matter of moments, he wasn't too badly beat up.

"Jacob is down on the Engineering deck." Miranda's Omni-tool lit up as she brought up the map of the ship she'd managed to download earlier. "Most of the sectors appeared to be connected by trams or something…There's one not far. Shepa-Jack, is on the Bridge," She highlighted that part of the ship so Garrus could see. "It isn't far."

"What happened?" The turian demanded suddenly, Miranda mentally cursed her slip of the tongue, before she averted her gaze. "What, happened?" He asked again.

"I spoke with Jack briefly a while ago…She said Shepard was, killed by one of those, things." Silence descended for several long moments. Neither really knowing what to say.

"Shepard has survived worse. I'm sure Jack was mistaken." Both Miranda and Garrus spun around to face the door. Thane simply shrugged slightly at their startled reactions.

"True. But Jack sounded pretty sure of it. I'd like to see for myself that she's gone." Miranda responded calmly, and was surprised when both aliens murmured their agreement.

"Either way, Jack is alone, so it'd be best to go find her first. Then link up with Jacob and the others, and hopefully get off this nightmare before we end up joining her…"

* * *

With a loud snarl, the first necromorph charged the trio. Jacobs pistol boomed a second later and punched a round through its skull. It was no small surprise to the biotic when the creature simply kept charging, seemingly unhindered by the head injury.

Zaeed swiftly opened fire a second later, his rifle ripping through the slashers chest, aside from it stumbling, it simply keeping coming without any sign or injury or damage

Cursing quietly, Jacob's body was engulfed in a blue aura as he lashed out with his free hand and, using his biotics, lifted the creature off the ground, and slammed it hard into the deck a second later.

Several loud, sickening snaps were heard as it impacted with the metal deck, but even then it simply tried to crawl forwards, its scythe arms flailing as it tried to strike the squad. Jacob put another three rounds into it, and finally it stopped moving.

In the time it had taken to kill one however, four more had appeared in the corridor. Three more of the scythe bladed ones, and another of the gaunt creatures. A loud howl escaped it as it rushed forwards, and Jacob barely suppressed a shiver as he heard answering howls further away. Perhaps it was just an echo, but he didn't really believe that.

Reloading his pistol, he swiftly tucked it back into its holster, before a hand darted behind his back and retrieved his shotgun. They were getting closer now. Even with Zaeed and Mordin mowing them down, they just kept coming.

"Organs no use. Aiming for head or vital points ineffective!" Mordin cried as he replaced the clip in his SMG and resumed firing.

"Then what do you bloody suggest?" Zaeed countered as his rifle severed the head of one creature, and it kept charging without pause.

"Aiming for vitals no good…Unable to kill so how to fight? How do you kill something that won't die?" Mordin rambled on for a few moments, before abruptly snapping his fingers. "Aim for extremities!" He called out, and both Jacob and Zaeed gave him a confused glance. "Remove arms and legs. If we can't kill, we can stop them from getting close. Can't close distance, can't fight!"

"Worth a shot." The Cerberus soldier shrugged, before shifting his aim downwards and, with a loud bang his shotgun ripped the legs out from under one of the creatures. It hit the deck with a thud and continued to flail helplessly even as he shifted to the next target.

Another one leapt forwards, its claw like fingers threatening to close around the salarian's throat even as Jacob fired and blasted it over the railing and, presumably to the ground far below their catwalk.

A click followed and the biotic unleashed a wave of dark energy that sent the last few stumbling backwards. Having brought some time, he shifted his focus to reloading his shotgun.

The thermal clip had barely struck the deck with a clatter, when he heard a loud growl. His gaze snapped up as the necromorphs came at them again, and he simply resumed firing along with the rest of his squad.

That was until something dropped off the catwalk above them and blocked his vision. He had enough time to register it was a human head, and presumed for an instant it might have been either knocked flying by the fighting, or maybe severed from one of the creatures.

A heartbeat later, he spotted the tentacles that had sprouted from its neck. That was the last thing he saw before those same tentacles coiled around his throat and started strangling the soldier.

Luckily the monster had to be close at hand as its appendages didn't have a great deal of reach. And even as the edges of his vision began to darken, he brought his shotgun up and smashed it into the head, a loud crack was heard and the tentacles released their grip a moment later as the head they belonged to was sent flying away.

Gasping for breath, the soldier didn't have time to rest as he raised his shotgun and resumed firing, though thankfully there was only a few of the creatures left. And between the squad they easily managed to best them without further injury.

"You alright?" Zaeed asked once the fighting finally stopped, Jacob simply nodded as one hand moved to rub his now aching neck.

"Yeah. What the hell was that thing anyway?" The others could only shrug slightly in response to Jacob's question. "Whatever, we need to keep moving. Before more of those things turn up."

Despite the risk, the squad broke into a sprint and dashed back through the twisting catwalks until they reached the transport platform. Jacob wasted no time hitting the button to take them back across the chamber.

"I got a question." Zaeed broke the silence as the platform jolted into motion. "What happens when we run out of clips?"


	11. Chapter Eleven

Miranda's announcement had obviously hit the others harder then she'd expected. The next ten minutes of wandering aimlessly through the corridors was done so in silence. And even with only a brief glance, the Cerberus agent could see the emotion in Garrus' posture and expression.

Despite the fact she couldn't read the turian all that well, it was obvious by the way his shoulders were slumped and the subtle shift in his expression, that he'd taken the news about the commander badly.

While Lawson didn't know exactly how close they were, she knew Shepard trusted the sniper with her life, and the vice versa. It hardly mattered however, she knew that the initial shock of finding out about Melina had effected her just as badly.

The only one that didn't appear shaken by the news was Thane, whom simply gripped a pistol in one hand and scanned the corridors they wandered through with a calm and professional gaze that betrayed no emotion at all. It was unnerving to say the least. But Miranda had more important things to worry about.

Unlike the others who were focusing on the corridors around them. Her attention was dedicated to her Omni-tool, and the map she'd been able to download. It didn't help that much, but with a few *landmarks* on their side, they could at least piece together where they were and find the tram, hopefully.

That's what she'd said fifteen minutes ago when they'd first set out. And yet, here they were, still lost. "Damn it, I'm beginning to hate this place.' She muttered as her eyes flicked up to the corridor ahead and noted another two way split. They really couldn't afford another of these.

Glancing at the map once again, she could only hope she made the right choice as she gestured to the right hand hallway and set off once again, the two snipers close behind.

In the distance, she could hear the dull banging of something crawling through a vent. And her eyes flicked upwards and noted a gap in the shaft right above her. The agent swiftly increased her pace to put it as far behind them as possible before whatever it was caught up.

Another glance over her shoulder confirmed a fear that had made itself known since finding Garrus. He was lagging behind just a little, a slight limp hampering his movements. Whatever the creature was that had attacked him, it had done some damage.

They didn't have time to worry about that however. Once they found the tram, then she could worry about injures and patching him up. Then again she doubted medi-gel would do the job. It was more for bullet wounds and surface injures, it wouldn't help if it was broken bones or something of that nature.

For now, Miranda pushed the thought from her mind. If they could find the tram, then they could start making progress. The problem was, finding the right way through the twisting maze of corridors and storage rooms.

Luckily, the trio managed to reach the tram without incident. The constant sound of something stalking them kept them on edge. But whatever it was wisely chose to avoid presenting itself to the three heavily armed soldiers during their trip.

Miranda breathed a sigh of relief as she approached the tram and the door opened without protest. Aside from a couple of shattered windows, the place didn't appear to worse for wear. A terminal in the center of the tram lit up as she approached and displayed a image of the ship, several key locations automatically being highlighted, along with a few others that were coloured red, the tram apparently not being able to go there for one reason or another.

"Looks like its still working. This should get us to the bridge" Miranda informed the others as they joined her aboard the tram.

"Good, then we can find Shepard and find out what the hell is going on." Garrus growled as he gave the interior of the tram a once over. There was a few seats avaible, but he simply crossed his arms stubbornly and leaned against the wall. Thane did much the same, though appeared much more relaxed as he cast a glance out the shattered windows.

Miranda offered a slight shrug, before tapping the hologram marked *bridge* and felt the tram jolt into motion. "Jack briefly mentioned encountering someone…Maybe they'll have information on this incident."

"Let's hope so. After all the bodies we've seen, it would be nice to actually find someone that's still alive for a change." Garrus sighed, then winced as he shifted his weight and presumably put pressure on one of his injures.

Miranda's Omni-tool flared into life as she checked the supply of medi-gel. She didn't have nearly enough if they were going to keep getting hurt. Plus she wasn't sure exactly what was wrong with the turian. A quick glance in his direction also confirmed another suspicion, he swiftly shook his head upon meeting her gaze, he didn't want another shot just yet. Miranda had a feeling he wouldn't until there was no other option.

A sigh escaped her as she fell into one of the nearby seats and allowed her eyes to close. A couple of minutes rest wouldn't hurt…

It felt like she'd barely let her eyes close, when someone was gripping her shoulder and shaking her awake. It only took a moment before her mind snapped back into focus and she jolted up in her seat.

Garrus swiftly stopped her before she ended up crashing head first into him, and made a slight nod to the door of the tram. "Were here. Just pulling in now." He said calmly, before moving away, presumably to find Thane.

A few moments later, the door opened of its own accord, and Miranda swiftly lead the way off the tram and onto the platform.

"Urgh…How original." She groaned, this station looked no different to the one they'd left behind. A few subtle differences were present, namely a computer terminal, the holo screen proudly displaying the word *Store* in bold letters, and a enclosed, windowed section that presumably was a waiting area for people who wanted to use the tram.

"Bridge should be this way." Miranda said after a moment, before setting off towards the nearby door. She heard Garrus say something that her translator didn't pick up on, though she chose not to argue this time. It was likely a stab at her considering it was the only way they could go without piling back into the tram.

As the door slid open. The squad set off once again, surprisingly the corridor was made entirely of glass, or so it seemed. The walls were made up of glass with metal framework, while the floor was the same grated flooring they'd been walking on for the past hour or so.

They exchanged a confused glance at this, before setting off, weapons ready just in case something decided to try ambushing them.

Luckily they crossed the corridor without any hassles. Though as Miranda set to work unlocking the next door, they discovered they weren't entirely alone.

"You hear that?" Garrus commented as he raised his assault rifle, a dull thudding sound, barely audible through the thick metal, was constantly coming from the other side of the door.

The door opened a second later, and the turian tensed, expecting something to leap out the second the opening was presented. Strangely though, they were met by another empty corridor, almost.

The corridor was empty, though a sizeable shadow was cast over the wall in front of the,. The shape was human, or at least looked like it, and appeared to be slowly rocking back and forth on the spot, each time it shifted forwards; they heard the dull thud, much louder then before due to the door being open at this point.

"What the…" Miranda slowly drew her pistol as she carefully stepped into the hallway and turned to focus on the corridor ahead. Before she could even focus on the person, Garrus was at her side, weapon raised in case they proved hostile.

The Cerberus agent cringed as she caught sight of what appeared to be a human woman. It was hard to say as it appeared most of her face had been ripped apart or crushed. Blood matted her hair and coated her uniform, making it hard to make out any details.

The reason for the noise became clear a moment later, as the woman threw her head forwards and struck the wall with a loud thud. "Ma'am?" Miranda was rendered speechless by the horrific sight, Garrus on the other hand found his voice, albeit weakly. She could tell by the tone behind even that single word that he was just as shocked and likely sickened as she was.

The woman didn't respond. Instead she pulled her head back, and threw it forwards harder then before. A loud crack was heard, and she stopped moving. A moment later she simply slid down the wall and hit the floor.

One of Miranda's hands jumped to cover her mouth as she tore her gaze away from the sight. That didn't make sense in the slightest. Why the hell was she deliberately bashing her skull in against a wall?

The group was silent for several long moments, before Miranda finally managed to control her stomach and lowered her hand. "Come on…We, have to keep moving." Garrus simply nodded slightly, completely at a loss for words. Even Thane seemed shaken by the scene before them.

No one spoke as they carefully moved around the body and kept moving towards the bridge.

* * *

The platform ground to a halt once again, and like before, Zaeed was the first to step off, his rifle snapped to his shoulder as he swept the corridor. "Looks clear…Guess they learnt their lesson the first time." He muttered as Jacob and Mordin joined him.

"Maybe, but lets not take any chances." Jacob replied as he led the way back through the catwalks. The place was strangely silent, which was a rather unnerving contrast to the initial attack. Aside from the dull rumble of machinery, the area was devoid of any sound save the thudding of their boots on the metal floor.

"Another ambush I'd wager." Zaeed muttered after a moment, answering the question no one had bothered to ask. Ordinarily the team would have considered this a stupid idea, after all if the previous ambush had failed, why try the exact same tactic again?

But from what they'd seen of the creatures, they appeared little better then mindless beasts. Rushing headlong into the enemy's guns was probably the only concept of a strategy they had.

Somehow, Jacob found that hard to believe. He pushed the thought aside though as the silence was broken by a loud and familiar clanging sound which caused the trio to whip around. "What was that?" Zaeed muttered, eyes narrowing as he studied the darkened hallway.

"Sounds like something's following us…" Jacob barely held back a curse as the sound came, again from behind them. "Great, sounds like were surrounded." The ambush tactic might have failed the first time…But it seemed they'd found a different plan of attack. "Seems we underestimated them."

The soldier quietly scanned the corridor, and noted with a slight tinge of dread, this was the perfect place for these things to strike. It was dark, an air vent ran across the corridor right above them. The grated floor wouldn't hold out for long against the scythe bladed creatures. They had at least four directions they could attack from, and that was just what Jacob counted from a quick survey.

"We need to move, they'll slaughter us if we stay here." Zaeed warned as he began inching forwards in the direction they'd been heading. Mordin muttered some form of agreement and began to move as well. Jacob was the last to go, and he chose to inch backwards, his shotgun trained on the corridor behind them in case something tried to leap out of the darkness.

The soldier only made it a few steps, when he caught a glimpse of a shadow shifting slightly, and the dull scraping of claws on metal. His shotgun, that had almost reached his side, abruptly snapped back up to his shoulder. And a second later the creature leapt forwards into the light and charged towards him with a snarl. "Incoming!" He called out as he pulled the trigger, the first shot caught it in the chest and made it stumble, before it simply resumed its advance.

He heard Zaeed's assault rifle fire a second later, though when no bullets struck the creature in front of him, he assumed the worst.

"More this way!" He heard the mercenary call out from behind him, and in turn confirmed his fears. They'd been ambushed from both sides.

Without pause he fired again and sent the monster flying back into a support beam, no sooner had he chambered another round, a second had appeared and began charging. Behind him he could hear Mordin and Zaeed doing their best to hold back whatever was attacking from that side. Firing another shot, he severed the creatures arm, only to have it take a swing at him with the other, by some miracle his shields held and it glanced off the barrier.

A moment later he fired his shotgun again and sent the creature sprawling to the ground in a heap.

As Jacob paused to slam a fresh clip into his shotgun, he heard a screech of metal being bent and ripped apart. And cast his gaze upwards. A second later he leapt to one side as the vent grate above his head fell in pieces to the deck where he'd been standing.

A moment later another creature dropped out of the roof and landed in a half crouch. Jacob instinctively raised his weapon, though before he could pull the trigger its arm, strangely un-mutated lashed out and knocked the weapon out of his hands.

A hand dove for his pistol as he saw its other arm swing towards him. He had enough time to register that in the place of its hand, it had some form of glowing mass. He brought his pistol up to fire just as the thing struck his nearly drained shields.

The last thing he felt was his back slamming painfully into the wall, and a rush of heat, and something akin to a grenade explosion knocking him backwards, before he struck the deck a second afterwards.

His vision began to darken as he struggled to stand and failed. His ears rang from the sudden explosion, and he could taste blood. Aside from that he couldn't feel much if anything else.

He was dimly aware of a shadow hovering over him, claw like fingers twitching in anticipation of rending his flesh, before darkness consumed his vision and his body fell limp.

* * *

"What the hell did this?" Garrus asked as he studied the door to the bridge. Or rather, what was left of it. The doors had been ripped apart it seemed, though a quick glance at the remains confirmed it was solid steel like the rest of the ship. "Must have been massive to have ripped through a door like this." He muttered, before stepping through the door and onto the bridge proper.

Here wasn't much better. Terminals flickered and sparked, or were ruined completely, the floor was dented and entire sections of the deck had been ripped up and tossed aside at some point. Dark scorch marks, likely burned by grenade or similar explosives dotted the area, and as he led the trio further onto the bridge, his foot connected with a thermal clip and sent it rolling away.

Miranda moved past him and began sweeping the bridge, while Thane simply kept a hand resting on his pistol and seemed to survey the room silently, no doubt searching for any signs of danger.

Garrus shook his head after studied the damages and simply followed Miranda as she stopped by one of the broken terminals, her head dipped downwards for a moment, before she shook her head. "This is it." He heard her mutter, and his gaze followed hers to the deck.

The computer itself had been bent out of shape and apperared to have had something solid slam into it with enough force to buckle the metal inwards. And at the base, he noted a pool of blood.

"Jack said Shepard had been slammed into a computer by something. This has to be the place." Miranda finished her sentence, and the turian noted her voice was weak and faltered slightly.

His gaze followed the blood as it trailed away to a nearby door and presumably beyond. "Jack must still be alive, and wherever she went, she took the commander with her." He said after a moment, his voice holding a faint hint of hope as he started to move towards the door. "She wouldn't have taken the time to drag her to safety, if she was already dead."

He spared a glance over his shoulder, and he noted Miranda's expression, which had been a mixture of grief and fear, shifted into its usual calm and collected mask, after a moment she nodded slightly. "Maybe, but I wouldn't get you're hopes up. This is a lot of blood…"

Garrus cast his gaze downwards again, before glancing away, it was indeed. But he refused to give up on Shepard until he saw for himself she was dead. "Regardless, judging by the amount of clips here, I'd say Jack's running out. Best we find her, before more of those creatures do."

Garrus spared one final glance about the bridge, and noted another sizeable pool of blood off to one side. Strangely, there were several bloodied footprints leading from the pool towards the door. The feet were easily double the size of his own if he were to judge. "Looks like Shepard's not the only one that doesn't stay dead…" He said with a slight shudder at the thought, before pressing the button to open the door.

It opened a moment later, and he realized it was an elevator. He swiftly waved Miranda and Thane over,before stepping into the elevator and hitting the button to take them downwards, down being the only way the panel would let him pick. "Lets just hope were not to late..."


	12. Chapter Twelve

Tali grumbled quietly as she toyed with her comm. unit. At some point, likely when that tentacle thing had been throwing her about, it had been disabled and she couldn't pick up anyone else. With Isaac still unconscious, there wasn't much else she could do, save try and fix it.

The thought had occurred to her that there might not be anyone else alive to answer the comms, but that had been swiftly cast aside in favour of what she deemed a more *realistic*, or rather a less worrisome train of thought.

Finally, after what felt like hours of tinkering, she heard a distinct click from the unit, and allowed herself a smile as she checked her Omni-tool. Sure enough, she was picking up traffic again. So it had been her end after all.

"Hello? This is Tali'Zorah. Shepard, Jack, anyone?" She said quietly, her gaze briefly shifting to Isaac, then to the window of the small room she'd locked them in. She dared not speak to loud, not while the risk of luring more of the creatures to them was quite a real prospect.

Silence greeted her, and the quarian mumbled another curse before checking over the comm. unit once again in hopes of finding something wrong.

A few moments of toying with the device later, and she finally found a frequency that was in use. It wasn't the squad channel though, that was surprising. She didn't argue however and instead repeated her earlier message, hoping that maybe something had prompted the channel switch and she hadn't been notified. "This is Tali'Zorah. Can anyone read me?" She called out, a faint tinge of excitement edging into her tone as she heard a voice on the other line.

"The elevators coming get ready!" She heard someone say, the voice wasn't one she recognized. A few moments later however her voice must have reached his ears, or he finally realized someone had spoken to him. "Wait…Who is this?" His voice came through clearer, and Tali knew he was speaking to her this time.

"Tali…I just said that." She muttered slowly, her tone clearly betraying just how frustrated she was at having to repeat herself, though she didn't make any comments about it for now. "I take it you're not from the Normandy then?" She'd already figured that out, but it was the simplest method of trying to get information.

"Normandy…" He seemed to toy with the word for a moment, before coming to some form of conclusion. "You're one of, Shepard's crew I take it?" The quarian's heart skipped a beat at the mention of the commanders name, though she managed by a measure of self control to keep any emotion out of her voice when she responded.

"Yes. I take it you've met her?"

"Briefly…" She heard him sigh, and Tali felt a stab of unease. "We got ambushed just after we met, she's in pretty bad shape and her odds aren't looking good…" He finished after a brief pause.

Tali was silent for a long time after that, her mind trying to process what had been said. Shepard had survived worse before…But then again, after everything she'd seen so far, she had little idea what could be deemed *worse* then those, things roaming the ship.

"I'm on the medical deck." She finally found her voice, and somehow managed to avoid mentioning Isaac's presence for the time being, while she didn't know who the person was, it was better to keep their exact numbers secret. Even if he was trustworthy, there was still the problem of who else might be on the line. "I could try and find something to help her."

"It's better then nothing. I don't know how much longer she's got, so you'd better get whatever you can and get to the bridge quick!" Tali frowned as she noted the urgency in his voice. And in the background she could hear him preparing a weapon of some description.

A tense second passed, before she heard a door open, and a gunshot, then the comm. was shut off. "Hello? Hello?" She cursed again, before switching her own comm. off and sparing another glance out the window. "Great…"

She couldn't go too far, not while Isaac was still out cold. But if Shepard was in trouble. She could stand around and wait forever…

* * *

Garrus instinctively ducked as a bullet, or what he presumed was one, struck the doorframe less then an inch from his head. The loud ping left his ears ringing, but he swiftly tuned it out and brought his rifle up to return fire. His first instinct being the creatures were using weapons.

The weapon never made it to his shoulder, as a flash of blue dazzled his eyes, then a second later he was knocked backwards straight into Thane. Both sniper and assassin groaned as they struggled to get back to their feet and fight off whatever they'd stumbled across.

"Damn it…These things are biotics too!" the turian growled as he rolled into a crouch and snatched up his weapon.

"Wait! I know that voice…" Garrus hesitated as female voice, a familiar one, broke the silence, a moment later he lowered his weapon as the figure shifted from behind the bulkhead she'd been hiding behind and levelled her shotgun with the snipers head.

"Jack?" He blinked in surpise, before slowly lowering his assault rifle; thankfully the biotic did the same. "Damn it's good to see a friendly face!"

He heard Miranda say something though he couldn't make out the words. Judging by the harsh glare she received from Jack though, he doubted he wanted to know the details.

"I see the cheerleader managed to round up her squad without getting eaten…Shame." Jack said bitterly, though Garrus could also pick up on a faint tinge of relief that wasn't quite hidden. Despite the situation, the turian couldn't help but chuckle as his gaze shifted past her and to the second figure that stepped into view.

'Friends of yours?" The newcomer asked, his rifle still raised, though it was thankfully not pointed at anyone in particular.

"Yeah, there from the Normandy to." Jack said after a moment. Garrus ignored her for the time being though and studied the human with her. He received what appeared to be a confused stare in return. If he didn't know any better he'd say human hadn't seen a turian before.

"This is Hammond, Hammond," Jack idly waved a hand towards the human, who simply nodded slightly and finally relaxed his weapon. "Hammond, this is Garrus, Thane, and Miranda…" The biotic idly waved to each person in turn, and the sniper would have raised an eyebrow if he could, Jack had, for the first time that he could recall, actually used the Cerberus agents name.

Spirits this place was getting crazier by the second…

Pushing the thought aside for now, the sniper simply offered a nod to this *Hammond* person, before focusing on Jack. "Where's Shepard?" He demanded, his tone brooked no resistance.

He saw the pair exchange a glance, before the biotic nodded to the hallway behind them. "Back there…" She barely finished her sentence, before Garrus pushed past them and set off to find the commander.

It didn't take long as Jack followed along behind and pointed him in the right direction. Sadly most of the escape pods were offline and inoperable, but that didn't mean they were useless.

It hadn't taken much to seal Shepard in one of the pods, thus ensuring that the necromorphs wouldn't be able to attack her without first going through the others.

Garrus paid little attention to just how small the damn pod was as he carefully crept inside and sunk into a crouch next to Shepard, whom had been carefully placed in one of the vessels seats.

Even with a quick glance he could tell she wasn't holding up well. A nasty gash across her forehead had been tended to, likely with medi-gel, but even that didn't hide just how bad it was. Without even realizing, one of Garrus' hands idly moved to move a stray lock of hair away from her face as he examined the injury.

A moment later his hand jumped back as though a shock had struck him, the reason behind his sudden jolt being the fact that Shepard shifted very slightly. "What the…She's not dead?" He muttered after a moment, despite himself, a smile formed as he gently pressed a hand to her neck, it wasn't easy to do, but he did find a pulse. Shepard was still alive!

Garrus shook his head slightly as he withdrew to give her room. The head injury was likely one of many. And he didn't want to risk aggravating anything by poking and prodding the commander further.

With a reluctant sigh, the sniper quietly slipped out of the pod again and rejoined the group. Unsurprisingly he was just in time to find Miranda and Jack about to tear each other to shreds.

"What do you mean she's not dead? You said she had been killed!" He sighed heavily once again, before simply halting a few feet away and letting the two argue for now.

"Like I said over the comm. she got slammed into a fucking computer terminal by a, thing that was built like a tank! The fact that it didn't snap her in half was a miracle, let alone the fact that she still had a damn heartbeat afterwards!" Jack growled, the tell tail blue glow of biotics starting to envelop her arms.

Before she could act, Garrus decided to step forwards and place himself between the two before they ended up killing each other. "Enough! Both of you!" He snapped, shockingly, both abruptly backed off, likely surprised by the angry tone the turian sported. "So we find out Shepard isn't dead, and you decide to kill each other? What exactly is that going to do to help our situation?"

Neither biotic could find the courage to answer. And Garrus nodded slightly. "While the commander is recovering, we need to decide on a course of action. And killing each other is NOT an option."

Silence followed the comment, though the sniper was grateful to discover neither Miranda, nor Jack appeared ready to ignore him and keep fighting. "What are our options?" He finally asked, his posture relaxing slightly now that he had their attention.

"I was discussing that with Hammond before you three turned up." Jack stated her voice almost unnervingly calm. "Turns out the crew don't use the same weapons and thermal clips we do…And I'm almost out." Garrus nodded slightly as he mentally counted his own supplies, he wouldn't have much left either.

"We can either head back to the Normandy…Wait here till we do run out and die. Or contact the rest of the squad and tell them to come help us." The turian swiftly laid out their options. None of them were really promising, the Normandy was docked on the other side of the ship, they'd probably get wiped out before they made it half way. Ditto for the back up squad trying to reach them.

"I might have a suggestion." All eyes shifted to Hammond as he detached himself from the wall he'd been leaning against. The officer naturally had been smart enough to duck into a corner and wait out the argument. Now that things were under control he could pitch in without risk of getting shot. "There are plenty of weapons aboard the Ishimura. There isn't a dedicated military force, but there should be more then enough equipment and power packs we can make use of…"

Garrus nodded slightly, though didn't speak for several seconds. Up until he realized everyone was watching him, seemingly waiting for an answer. Since when was he promoted to squad leader?

Pushing the uneasy feeling that settled in his stomach aside. He simply nodded. "It's better then nothing. I still want to contact the Normandy though. If they haven't already, the reserve team will be coming aboard, and I don't want to risk any more causality's until we know for sure what the hells going on."

A string of confirmations followed his statement, and Garrus, again was amazed by the fact that everyone was listening to him. Last he checked Miranda was second in command, not him. But right now they had bigger things to worry about then rank.

A hand shifted to his ear as he activated his comm. "Garrus to Normandy, come in."

Silence followed, and Garrus shifted uneasily, his gaze briefly wondering to Miranda as she toyed with her Omni-tool. Had they been sabotaged again?

A moment later the silence gave way to static, then a rough voice. "Turian? I'm surprised you survived this long." The sniper offered the turian equivalent of a smirk.

"Grunt, strange to hear you manning the comms…" He muttered, though his amusement faded a few moments later as he heard what was unmistakably the sound of gunfire in the background. "What's going on back there?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Both Garrus and Miranda, who presumably was listening in, winced when the krogan roared and a loud crack filled the radio, likely him slamming an adversary into a bulkhead.

"You were told to wait on the damned ship until called Grunt!" Miranda cut in, her voice cold and angered. While Garrus didn't like the tone, he had to agree, the thought of more of the squad roaming the ship not a pleasant one.

His fears were doubled a moment later however, when Grunt spoke again. "Were still on the ship human. These things came to us!" He growled, swiftly causing the Cerberus agent's mouth to snap shut and spare a glance towards Garrus, once again he questioned the reason behind him being put on the spot.

"This ship is a warzone, Shepard's injured, half our squad's missing and were low on ammo. Now the Normandy's under attack too?" The turian shook his head, his gaze hopping from face to face as he studied each in turn. "Joker, you there?"

"Yeah I'm here." Garrus noted the pilots voice was dead serious, lacking its usual joyful tone, not a good sign.

"If there not already, get everyone there aboard. Then break away and get to a safe distance." Miranda threw a glare his way, but the sniper ignored it. Surprisingly, Hammond and Thane, judging by their expressions, agreed with him. "It's to dangerous to stick around. Once where done…If we finish this mission. We'll call for pickup. Otherwise…"

No one found a reason to argue with Garrus. "Got it, preparing to break away now." Joker confirmed, a moment later the comm. clicked off, subjecting the group to an uneasy silence.

* * *

Grunt grumbled quietly at the news. He wanted to fight! Not run away like a damned coward. Plus with the fact that it had been the turian that had relayed the orders and not his battlemistress, that made things all the more questionable. He wouldn't disobey though. He'd already seen these creatures first hand, and even he wasn't stupid enough to rush off alone and try to fight these things single handily.

Already he could hear the ship powering up. But the krogan had more important things to worry about. Namely a fresh wave of the creatures rushing the airlock. A loud laugh escaped him as he resumed firing. They were weak, but numerous. Those in their own way, they presented a worthy fight.

"How exactly did these things get on board?" Kasumi muttered as she carefully inched back out of the, to her mind at least, insane krogans line of sight. Everything that came close was swiftly turned into a bloody mist as the hulking warriors shotgun shredded them to pieces, and quite frankly the thief had no intentions of being the next victim.

"How should I know? Just stall them a few more minutes!" Joker snapped in response as he desperately tried to warm up the core and get them ready to move. Of course the one time they grew complacent was the one time everything went to hell.

Now the ship was being invaded by those, things. And no one had much of an explanation as to how and where they came from.

Luckily, unlike the collectors, they only had one way of getting aboard at the moment, namely through the main airlock. Which the four remaining squad members were quick to turn into a killing ground as the creatures rushed them and were gunned down.

"Just give me a few more seconds…" Joker called out, Kasumi simply nodded slightly as she reloaded her pistol and resumed firing; though there was little point seeing as neither could see the other.

Another of the scythe bladed creatures fell as Grunt's shotgun ripped it in half. Though for each that fell, two more seemed to appear out of the gloom and rush the ship.

Kasumi was aware of some form of argument in the bridge, which by some poor design choice was only a few feet from the airlock. And a few moments later the news was relayed to them. "Damn it, EDI says we got something breaking into the cargo hold. Looks like there trying to get to the core! Someones going to have to get down there and hold them off."

"There are only four of us! We can't hold the whole ship alone." Kasumi responded, anger tinging her words as she began to see how desperate the situation was for them. Four on, god knew how many wasn't a very promising concept. Sure a few of the crew had weapons and could pitch in. But they all knew that wouldn't help tip the scales.

"We'll have to split up." Grunt growled as he reloaded his shotgun and swiftly dismembered another creature. "Two of you go to engineering and deal with them. I'll stay here and hold the airlock."

Kasumi was silent for a few moments, it was surprising to say the least that Grunt had been the one to come up with a plan. Though she didn't see any reason to argue at this point. "It'll have to do. Legion, follow me!" The pair swiftly set off for the elevator, while Samara and Grunt stayed behind. "Lets hope were not to late…"

* * *

"Nothing major will make full recovery." Mordin muttered as he finished his examination of Jacob. The soldier had been hit hard by the, exploding, creature, they really weren't sure what had happened exactly.

Luckily they'd managed to hold off the remaining necromorphs. Now it was just a matter of letting the doctor work and hopefully wake the injured soldier before more showed up.

"How much longer do you think he'll be out?" Zaeed asked as he scanned the corridor, rifle gripped tightly in both hands as he watched for even the slightest hint of movement.

In answer to the mercenary's question, Jacob groaned quietly, a hand soon shifted to his ribs as he regained consciousness. "About time you woke up. We were just talking about leaving you behind." Zaeed said quietly, he didn't even bother to disguise the amusement in his tone as he spoke.

"Sure you were…What the hell hit me?" Jacob muttered as Mordin offered a hand and pulled him back to his feet.

"Exploding creature. Suicide tactic. Brutal but effective. Acid involved as well, kinetic barriers absorbed worst of it though." The doctor swiftly explained, his Omni-tool still glowing as he finished his examination. "Full recovery assured. Several bruises. Will be sore for a while."

Jacob nodded slightly. The damage wasn't severe, that was good. "Here, think you might have dropped this." The soldier was brought out of his thoughts by Zaeed offering him his, surprisingly undamaged shotgun.

"Were almost out of clips though." The mercenary continued, his gaze returning to the corridors around them. "We'll have to try and find more ammo, or new weapons. And soon."

"Right, for now at least. Let's find that second fuel station and get this ship moving again. The last thing we need is to end up crashing into the planet. Not while were still aboard at least." No one found a reason to argue with Jacob as he checked over his shotgun to ensure it still worked. Even though it had hit the deck pretty hard, it wasn't to badly damaged. The problem came from a lack of ammunition.

"Surely the crew had weapons? There has to be an armoury around here somewhere." Zaeed spoke what was on all their minds.

"Possible, though judging by the substantial losses to crew. Weapons might be ineffective. Or they might not have had access to the equipment. Maybe no weapons at all, this doesn't appear to be a military vessel." Mordin rambled on for a few moments longer, Jacob simply sighed, if anyone could dash even the slimiest of hopes with cold logic. It had to be Doctor Solus.

"Lets worry about that possibility once we get there." Jacob stated after a moments silence, his shotgun snapping to his shoulder as he lead the way down the corridor once again. "For now, lets just get that fuel pump working before more of those things turn up and try to kill us."


	13. Chapter Thirteen

A headache…A really nasty one at that was the first thing that Isaac felt as his eyes cracked open. A weak groan followed as his head shifted upwards slightly, his blurry vision trying, and failing to focus on the room around him. A moment later his body fell limp and his head struck the metal deck with a thud, causing him to groan again. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he had a hangover.

"What the hell hit me?" He muttered as a hand moved to the side of his helmet. For a moment he toyed with removing it and examining his skull, it wouldn't have surprised him in the least if his helmet wasn't the only thing sporting a dent at this point. Though survival instinct overrode the desire to remove a piece of his rig. After all, he didn't want to expose even an inch of skin to the necromorphs.

As his headache began to subside, very slightly at least. Memories of the last few minutes, or hours he didn't know, began to creep back into his mind. The crew member, the tentacles that knocked him out. Tali shouting his name before he blacked out…

Tali!

His head snapped up again, and he couldn't help but cringe as a dull ache formed in the back of his neck from the sudden movement. "Tali?" He whispered quietly, his voice horse from lack of use, and he noted his mouth was dry, how long had it been since he last ate, or drank anything? That wasn't important right now.

His newly restored vision carefully swept the room, though he noted with a tinge of panic that he couldn't see her anywhere. Had more of those things turned up? Had she abandoned him?

He didn't dwell on it for long, he had to get moving before the necromorphs did find him, and right now he was an easy meal for them.

Ignoring his headache, and the desire to just sleep off the pain, he forced himself up into a sitting position and spared another glance about the room he'd woken up in.

Several cabinets lined one wall, one or two had been opened and the contents tossed about, likely in someone's haste to find whatever they were looking for. While the others remained undisturbed.

Shifting his gaze downwards, he almost leapt back a inch when he spotted a figure sprawled out on the deck a few feet away. At first his mind assumed the worst. Though closer inspection revealed it wasn't the quarian, but one of the Ishimura's crew. That did little to calm his nerves, but at the same time he was, somewhat relieved to note it wasn't Tali. At least there was a chance she was still alive.

Finally, he summed up the energy to pull himself upright, thanks in no small part to the table he'd been placed next to. Both hands came to rest on the counter top as a rush of disorientation and nausea struck the engineer.

His hand seemed to develop a mind of its own and slid a few inches across the counter, where upon his fingers closed around a small device and tugged it closer. After a few seconds, he finally lifted his head and focused on what he'd found.

His helmet tilted slightly as he studied the disk, a video log. How'd this get here? His gaze briefly shifted to the corpse next to him, before shifting back to the disk. Tali might have left it to explain where she went…Or maybe it would just be a security tape like the last ones.

After a few moments of silent thought, he tapped in a command on the device and downloaded the recording to his rig, and in turn the holographic systems in his suit activated and played back the log.

Static was the first thing he saw. Though as the picture resolved he cringed as a loud scream assaulted his ears. A female voice, a disturbingly familiar one followed a moment later. "Get him on the table!" She snapped, before the picture finally resolved into a clear image.

Isaac's heart skipped a beat as he recognized the woman whom had recorded the message. "This is Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan, transmitting ship wide. We need more help! We don't have the resources to deal with this many cases. Nobody will tell us what's happening!" The blond haired medical officer sighed, her eyes closing for a moment as she seemed to compose herself. "These wounds…we're not equipped deal with this many…"

A loud scream cut her off, and Nicole winced, before her gaze shifted away from the screen. "Hold him! Nurse, you hold him down! Christ!" Her gaze snapped back to the screen. "End recording!" And a moment after the screen froze.

"Nicole…" Isaac mutter,before silent for a long moment after the video stopped, his gaze never moving away from the screen. She looked no worse for wear, though how long ago had this message been recorded? And why was it here of all places? It was almost as though it'd had been placed for him to find upon waking up…

No, chances are it had been stored here for some reason. A coincidence, nothing more.

His hands closed into fists as he pushed the thought aside. She was still on board, she had to be! He had to find her before those monsters did…he had to get to her before it was too late.

What if it already was though? What if she was already dead long before he'd even boarded the Ishimura?

Isaac violently shook his head, ignoring the sudden flare of pain from his still throbbing head. No, she was alive, he knew it! And he wouldn't rest until she was safe.

With a flick of his wrist, the hologram vanished. And the engineer was plunged into darkness.

* * *

"Okay, this is it!" Jacob called out as the squad halted next to the second fuel pump. "Watch my back." A blue aura swiftly enveloped the soldier as he set to work reactivating the pump.

Zaeed and Mordin were silent while he worked, which was saying a lot for the doctor all things considered. Luckily for them it seemed most of the creatures were distracted elsewhere and they didn't see or hear anything, save the loud clang of the switch slamming into place. Followed by the dull hum of it activating.

The trio tensed as the sound reverberated throughout the ship. Though as the echo died away, they were surprised to note nothing followed. No inhuman wailing, no clanging of feet on metal, nothing. "Okay, now that's just creepy." Zaeed muttered after a moment as he lowered his weapon. "You'd think they'd swarm us after that, like last time."

"Creatures smarter then first appeared. Perhaps knew tactic would fail, waiting elsewhere to ambush a different way." Mordin pitched in, his pistol still firmly gripped in both hands as his eyes darted about the empty corridor ahead of them.

"For once doc, could you keep you're observations to yourself.' Jacob said, a heavy sigh escaping him as he snatched his shotgun from the deck. "It really doesn't make me feel better knowing those things are waiting around the next corner."

Mordin opened his mouth to respond, though wisely snapped it shut a second later and simply nodded.

"Okay, that's the fuel working again." Kendra's voice suddenly invaded their comms. Jacob knew he wasn't going to like this. "I've been running a system check. And the centrifuge is offline as well. Without it, we've got tones of rocks and asteroid fragments pulling us towards the colony. You'll have to get down there and reactivate it, and fast. We'll hit the planets atmosphere in less then an hour."

"Hold on a bloody second!" Zaeed cut in, Jacob threw him a glare, but didn't object. "What colony? First I heard about this, and why the hell is the ship loaded up with rocks?"

"Look, I'll explain everything later, just, fix the centrifuge and stabilize our orbit…Or it won't matter what I tell you as we'll all be dead before I can explain!" The trio exchanged glances, before the mercenary relented.

"Alright, but I'm holding you to that." He said dangerously, before switching his comm. off. Jacob simply shook his head, before setting off once again, he wisely chose to keep his unit online, after all they had no idea where the hell they were going, and Kendra did.

* * *

"No, no, n-Hmm…" Tali paused for a moment as her search finally turned up something, she hoped was useful at least. Strangely enough, for a medical deck it seemed to be quite lacking in medical supplies. She'd found more power packs for her cutter then anything else so far.

Finally she found a series of containers labelled as medical equipment of various. Some were painkillers, others were, what she assumed was an equivalent to Medi-gel. Though she had little idea as to whether that was true or not, all the labels were titles she didn't recognize. "It's better then nothing." She muttered as she tucked several of the containers into pouches on her enviro suit.

She couldn't carry much; it would slow her down otherwise. But at least it was a start, and once she got Isaac back onto his feet he could help carry it, and in turn hopefully explain what they would need and what could be left behind.

Tali hesitated for a moment, before she whipped around and set off back towards the door to the operating room she'd been searching. She hated the idea of leaving the engineer alone. But there simply wasn't time to wait for him to wake up. And she didn't know how long Shepard had left. Keelah she might already be dead.

Either way, they'd need the medical supplies, and that was what she'd ultimately chosen to do. She'd left her combat drone to watch over Isaac, though somehow she doubted it would be enough.

Satisfied she'd found everything she could, and unwilling to wander any further away from her unconscious companion. Tali swiftly darted out of the operating room and set off back down the corridor.

She'd only gone a few steps when her Omni-tool abruptly lit up the display swiftly flickering between orange and red to get her attention.

Frowning slightly, she tapped in a command and the display changed to display information on her drone. And most notably, the fact that several systems were failing. "Oh no…" Without pausing to think, the quarian broke into a run. She'd only been gone a few minutes, what could have happened in such a short span of time?

* * *

"Come on! Jeeze who designed this blasted elevator?" Kasumi snapped as she paced back and forth in the Normandy's agonizingly slow elevator. Naturally, Legion simply remained in place, his head plates shifting slightly as his single optical unit followed the thief's movements.

"Constant motion not recommended. Unit recommends conserving strength for task ahead." He stated after a few moments. His naturally monotone voice doing little to help calm the woman's nerves.

"Easy for you to say." She muttered, though despite her words she halted and crossed her arms. "You don't have emotions. Therefore you don't get impatient." The thief sighed heavily as she spared the geth a glance, the only response she received was a subtle arching of its head plates as it seemed to contemplate her words. Though Legion decided against answering, she was right in a sense, it didn't have emotions to hamper it. But that didn't mean it would openly agree.

Finally elevator stopped, and Kasumi paused to ensure her rebreather was on properly before the door opened. She disliked using them, but the risk that the hangar had been cracked open was very possible. After all if something was trying to access the ship from the outside, there wasn't a great deal of options. Hack the bay doors open, or remove it entirely.

She really didn't want to think about what kind of creature or weapon could cut through Silaris heavy armour. After all, they were about to come face to face with it…

Banishing the thought, she collected her pistol and spared a quick glance towards Legion, whom simply shouldered his assault rifle and stepped out into the hallway beyond the doors.

As the thief followed, she noted with a measure of relief just how, quiet the area was. Admittedly there wasn't normally crew down on this deck. But she'd expected alarms, some form of enemy force waiting for them.

Instead she was met by the same corridor she always encountered when coming down to engineering. She didn't dwell on it for long; instead her gaze swept the hanger bay in search of any obvious threats. Legion had somehow already made it halfway across the bay and was crouching behind the Hammerhead, while Kasumi instead favoured to just use a stack of storage crates that had been left by the elevator.

Kasumi peered over the crates a moment later. Surprisingly the place seemed, empty. They'd received warnings about a breach, but there didn't appear to be anything down here, had the sensors malfunctioned?

"Joker, there's nothing down here…Are you su-" She was cut short as something slammed into the ship, the loud clang accompanied by a earth quake like impact that sent Kasumi crashing to the deck. "Oww." She groaned before picking herself up, out of the corner of her eye she could see Legion using the tank to pull himself up as well.

"Damn it! Something massive just struck the ship. Barriers are down, I think you've got incoming!" Joker shouted over the intercom, much to Kasumi's annoyance.

"Why the hell are we still here?" She hissed as another reverberating clang shook the ship.

"Something has locked the ship in place. We cannot escape until it is dealt with." EDI calmly informed them a moment later. The thief sighed heavily of course; nothing was ever easy was it? She was silent for a few moments, before her eyes widened as the words sunk in.

"What could possibly be holding the ship in place?" She spared a glance towards Legion, whom offered a slight shrug, clearly as perplexed as she was. There were possibility's, docking clamps, some form of tractor beam perhaps. But the fact that it only seemed to activate now was rather worrying. Something was determined not to let the ship escape.

Her thoughts were pulled away from the subject as a loud bang erupted from the opposite end of the hanger. "Warning, hanger door damaged, breech imminent." EDI warned, luckily she'd planned ahead and had a breather unit on already, legion of course didn't need to breath so he would be fine if the hanger suffered a decompression.

And this was proven correct a moment later as a loud screeching sound filled the hanger and forced Kasumi to cover her ears. The sound increased in pitch for a moment, before another bang accompanied it. Once the noise died away, the thief risked lifting her head once again.

Sure enough, the door had been buckled inwards and tore open, giving free access to whatever was likely outside. "What the hell could have done that?" Kasumi gasped as she studied the buckled and dented hanger door. "That door is at least ten feet of solid metal!"

Her question was answered a moment later as several tentacle like appendages began to creep through the newly opened door and began exploring the interior of the hanger. A moment later several humanoid like creatures joined it, though they weren't searching, the first instantly spotted the woman and with a snarl broke into a charge right towards her.

"The sooner you can get us out of here, the better!" Kasumi snapped into her comm. as she opened fire, the first shot easily snapped the creature's neck from the force, but did little to slow its advance.

Before it reached her, a well aimed burst of assault rifle fire ripped the creature to shreds and caused it to slam into the crates Kasumi had been using for cover.

Despite the situation, the thief offered a brief nod to the geth, whom simply adjusted his aim and resumed firing as another of the creatures leapt towards him. Kasumi swiftly rejoined the fight as well, her pistol tearing holes in whatever creature that fell into her sights.

Sadly for every one she shot, another replaced it a moment later. She couldn't help but cringe as another burst through the hanger door and stumbled towards her, this one was larger then the rest or at least its stomach was. And Kasumi felt a wave of nausea as even a brief glance revealed the damn things insides appeared to be, moving.

Had she not been busy fighting to keep the damn things at bay, she might have lost her breakfast at the very notion. Though even  _with_  that distraction, it was hard to keep her focus solely on dealing with the creatures.

It was made even more difficult with the realization that they just wouldn't die. Even after removing their legs, they'd simply drag themselves forward, clawed hands and scythe like talons tearing into the bulkhead as they desperately crawled forwards inch by inch. Removing the arms simply led to the, stumbling about and trying to bite whichever of the two they came close to. In the end she was rapidly burning through her clips in a vain attempt to hold them back.

And judging by the steadily growing pile around Legion's feet, he wasn't fairing much better.

Kasumi jumped back abruptly with a surprised gasp when a scythe blade ripped through the crate she'd been sheltering behind to reload. The sickening monster having somehow avoided the worst of the barrage and came within striking distance, or perhaps it was another and she hadn't seen it...

Either way, the creature offered a loud growl as it swung again, this time she was to slow, and her pistol clattered uselessly to the deck in two pieces a moment later.

Stumbling back, the thief swiftly pressed her now bleeding hand to her chest while fumbling for her SMG with the other.

Just as it prepared to strike again, and Kasumi's back struck a wall. A bullet struck the side of its head and sent the creature reeling. A moment later, a second round struck it, and as a result it collapsed into a heap.

With the danger passed, Kasumi swiftly yanked her weapon from it's holster and brought it to bear on the fresh wave of creatures assaulting the hanger. "Damn it, we can't keep this up much longer!" She cursed, if the Normandy didn't get underway soon…

Despite her best attempts, the thief noted with slowly building anger that she really wasn't doing much good anymore. With her right arm injured, she was almost blind firing with her left, and without the second hand, her shots were quite wild and inaccurate. Though considering just how many of the damned things there were, accuracy wasn't really a problem at the moment.

What was a problem, was the creatures were reacting to their continual resistance.

A inhuman howl pireced the constant blood crazed screams of the monsters, and the barking of weapons fire. Kasumi was almost forced to clutch her ears again at the terrifying sound. Though she was distracted a moment later as one of the massive tentacles reared up, the very tip of its clawed appendage scraping against the roof of the hanger as it prepared to strike.

The thief's eyes widened as she realized where it was aiming. "Legion!" The geth snapped around, his head craning back as it realized to late what was coming. A second later the tentacle slammed into deck hard enough to buckle the solid steel plating.

Kasumi could only stare in horror as it withdrew, the Hammerhead that Legion had been using for cover looked like crumpled paper, and the robot was nowhere to be seen.

Luckily the abrupt attack had taken most of the creatures down as well. Though she noted with a chill that several were still standing, several more were beginning to stumble back to their feet as well. One had been almost entirely pulverized by the attack, though its head was still moving slightly as tendrils burst out of it's neck and carried it forwards.

Kasumi gulped as she ejected the spent thermal clip in her SMG and loaded another. Or rather, her last. There were a dozen of them still moving, and she had enough ammo for probably three, four if she was dead on with her shots.

The elevator was to far away…She could run, and besides, where would she go? Giving up the hanger meant they'd have full access to the rest of the ship if they didn't already.

With a heavy sigh, she simply brought her weapon up and watched as they slowly drew closer. The first one growled and charged, and Kasumi pulled the trigger.

* * *

Tali finally skidded to a halt outside the office. Her breath came in ragged pants as she swept the corridor, weapon at the ready for any sign of a threat.

Once she'd confirmed she was alone, the plasma cutter returned to her side and she sighed heavily. Maybe it had been a malfunction or something… Her gaze finally landed on the remains of her combat drone, the purple orb having been ripped almost in half by something swiftly put an end to her brief moment of hope.

Admittedly the drones were fragile, and she could easily fix it with enough time and equipment. But neither were things she had right now. Her eyes darted to the door next, and she barely suppressed a shudder when she realized the door had been unlocked. She'd taken steps to keep it closed until she came back, clearly someone, or something, had gotten in regardless.

Tapping the button, she kept her cutter loosely aimed at the door as it slid open.

Tali had expected to come face to face with some gruesome monster or another. Instead she was greeted by a pitch black room. "Isaac?" She winced as her voice echoed in the small room, the silence was almost unnerving.

Luckily she'd had time to aquaint herself with the finer points of her new weapon, and with a tap of a button the flashlight flickered into life along with the laser sights. The narrow orb of light wouldn't help much, but it gave her something to see by.

Glancing about the room, she was partly relieved to see it was more or less how she left it. Save the lack of lighting, A closer inspection however revealed one troubling fact.

Isaac wasn't here. The room was deserted.

A shiver ran through the quarian as she assumed the worst. Though she had no proof, there was no blood or remains. If he'd been killed they'd have left something behind, it seemed unlikely they'd drag him off alive.

Then again, they'd tried that with her…

Tali mentally cursed her mind for finding counterpoints to her attempts at rationalization. Chances are the engineer had woken up and gone looking for her.

A hand shifted to her helmet as she clicked her comm. on. Maybe she could find the right channel and contact him…

"Warning, Foreign contaminate detected, quarantine engaged."

Another sigh escaped her as she snapped around to face the dor, the now familiar snarling of a necromorph steadily growing louder. "Keelah…"


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Isaac finally let out the breath he'd been holding as the necromorph stopped twitching. Having removed both its arms and its head, there really wasn't many options left to attack it with.

Once he was sure it wasn't going to get up again he replaced the power pack in his cutter and clipped it to his belt. "Just once I'd like to enter a room and NOT have something try to eat my face." He grumbled, before turning his attention back to the barricade that had been impeding there progress for the past hour or so.

Despite losing Tali, he still had enough of the equipment they'd found, and had managed to rig a small explosive that would get him through. The only problem was what lay beyond.

Ignoring the thought, he finished attaching the thermite and with a few adjustments the shock paddles he'd found by some stroke of luck. "Okay, that ought to do, it. Just a little-"The engineer paused for a moment, before cursing and swiftly ducking to one side, as the barricade abruptly exploded in a blinding flash of light.

It was a full minute afterwards, before he risked lowering his hand and chancing a look at the barricade. "Whoa…" Or rather the melted remains of the door, the barricade, and most of the area around it. Drops of melted metal dripped from the ceiling, and wisps of smoke coiled up from the deck where the struck. "That stuff packs a punch." He mumbled, his hand dipping down to retrieve his cutter as he cautiously advanced through the newly made hole.

* * *

"She's hiding something, that's all I'm saying." Zaeed finally commented after what felt like an hour of silence. "I've worked with people like her long enough to know that much. And I hate secrets."

"Same here, but right now were in the same boat. Either we get this ship back in orbit, or we all hit end up dead when it hits the planet." Jacob responded as he spared another glance towards his Omni-tool. How exactly Kendra had done it, he wasn't sure, but she'd been able to upload a map of the engineering deck onto it and now they had a rough idea where to go.

Of course, she'd also unintentionally given them a few other details. And the soldier couldn't hide a slight smirk as he began to lead the squad down a different set of corridors. No one but him was paying attention however, not that they'd argue if they knew what he did.

"Through here." He made a slight gesture to the door ahead of them, before returning to the map. Luckily the centrifuge they were supposed to fix somehow, wasn't far away as well. Which meant after his little detour they'd get back on track and still have plenty of time to fix the ship. Kendra having given them an estimate of about twenty minutes until they hit the planet

Thankfully the door wasn't locked, and as they approached it opened automatically, giving them full acess to what lay behind. "So this is the centrifuge huh?" Zaeed asked as they entered the room, the lights had shut down at some point, plunging the room into darkness.

"Not exactly. I figured we could use a little something extra before we risked going up against more of those things." Taping the command on his Omni-tool, the light snapped on a moment later and he lightly shined it around the room to show his companions the contents. "Don't know why they put it on the engineering deck. But welcome to the armoury!"

* * *

As the light played across the different shelves and containers, he heard Zaeed chuckle. "Damn, that's a lot of hardware…" The mercenary said after a few moments, a grin forming as he compacted his rifle and approached one of the weapons for a closer look. "Now we just need to figure out what the hell this stuff is."

A loud click signaled the end of Kasumi's short lived resistance. And a heavy sigh escaped her as she let the spent SMG slide between her numb fingers and clattered to the deck.

So this was it? This was how it was going to end?

Despite her best efforts, she was out of weapons, out of ammunition and still out numbered five to one. With Legion out of commission, or so she assumed seeing as he'd been turned into a shiny metal pancake a few minutes ago, she had nothing left to fight with.

The necromorphs weren't in any rush to kill her either, and in fact were keeping there distance, knowing she was out of options and thanks to the earlier attack, she was beginning to bleed out as well. Her suit didn't have Medi-gel dispensers, having remained on the ship she hadn't taken the time to suit up with everything. And as a result her newly injured right arm was still bleeding heavily.

It was taking its toll as well, her vision constantly swam in and out of focus as she watched the creatures closing in on all sides and her breathing had shortened to weak gasps as she fought to keep awake.

She was dimly aware of something being said of the ships intercom, but the only thing she could hear clearly anymore was the pounding of her heart as it struggled to keep working. How a simple cut had drained her so quickly she didn't know. But then again she didn't know how long she'd been bleeding either so maybe it was worse then she'd first thought.

She blinked, and as her eyes reluctantly opened, she found herself face to face with one of the creatures. Its teeth were bared and she noted blood and salvia running down its chin as it growled and drew back on of its clawed hands to finish the job.

Despite her best attempts, she couldn't even raise a arm to try and block it. The only thing she could do was stare impassively as it prepared to cut her down.

Right before the fatal swing however. A loud bang, loud enough for even her to hear, pierced the silence, and the thief cringed as blood struck her face. The creature howled in pain as its arm was severed at the shoulder and the now lifeless appendage fell to the deck.

A second bang followed and its head was ripped from it's shoulders, its body swiftly followed the severed limbs to the blood stained deck a moment later.

Out of the corner of her rapidly darkening vision, Kasumi managed to spot movement by the ruined tank. The familiar shadow of a geth reloading his sniper rifle in preparation to take another shot.

Blinking again, she spared a glance towards Legion. He looked about as well as she felt. His chest plate and left arm were crumpled and shattered, likely a result of being crushed, the optical unit was cracked and flickering on and off randomly and despite being a machine, she could detect a noticeable quiver in his still operable arm as he took aim once again. He was barely holding together, and so was she.

Luckily for her, the sudden attack had drawn the majority of the creatures away, their attention focusing on the battered geth rather then the thief. Though it hardly mattered, unless a damn miracle happened she was as good as dead regardless.

And of course, something  _did_ happen. As she discovered a moment later when a distinct hiss filled the hanger, the sound of air flooding the chamber. The noise was loud enough to even penetrate the haze that had descended over Kasumi's mind. "Wh-What the heck?" She slurred, her gaze shifting away from Legion as he downed another necromorph and instead attempted to locate the source of the noise.

What was the point of pumping oxygen into the hanger? Admittedly she would be out of air soon, these rebreathers didn't last that long, but still with the doors ripped open it would just flood straight out…

And if enough flowed out at once… "Oh hell." Sure enough, the decompression alarms sounded a second later.

Despite her rapidly dulling senses, Kasumi's head whipped around as several crates and other smaller items began to slide towards the hanger doors. Soon enough bigger and heavier objects began to move as well. And before she knew it the familiar tugging of gravity began to force her inch by inch forwards as well.

Despite her best attempts, the pull was growing worse by the second. And sure enough she lost her balance and struck the deck with a clang. Before she could even shake off the disorientation she was already sliding rapidly towards the dark void of space.

Somehow, Legion had managed to grab hold of the ruined tank which, despite being crushed into scrap metal, was still too heavy to move. His free hand lashed out as she slid past in a attempt to grab the thief. Though just a moment to late as she failed to grab his hand and instead kept sliding.

Kasumi didn't dare look in the direction of the hanger door; the last thing she wanted to see was how little time she had left. Instead the thief busied herself with trying to find some way to stop herself.

By some twist of fate, she happened to spot a damaged section of deck, and at the last second her fingers closed around the edge.

Her relief was short lived as the sudden bone jarring stop resulted in a loud crack from her arm. Bitting her lip, she stifled the yelp of pain that tried to burst out of her lips as a result of the sudden flare of pain, especially given she had to use her already injured arm to save herself.

The necromorphs weren't so lucky however. The few that did managed to find something to grab onto, ended up being struck by debris and loose objects that tumbled past and were swiftly pulled into the abyss along with it.

Kasumi finally allowed herself a relief sigh, it seems the plan, crazy as it was, had worked and saved their necks. Now if only she could get her vision to stop focus.

A groan escaped her as she blinked several times, her vision didn't clear. Instead she felt her grip on the deck faltering slightly as the injures and blood loss finally started to overwhelm her. "No, no no n-no…" She mumbled repeatedly as she struggled to swing her other arm over to grab the deck, and failed.

As her vision began to fade she was aware of her grip failing, and the familiar sensation of moving again.

* * *

"Are you sure that's the best idea? We don't know that those things are capable of." Jacob finally asked as they finished picking out weapons. He wasn't entirely sure what half of this stuff was, it certainly wasn't Alliance hardware that was for sure. But a few things had stood out, and despite Kendra being quite against them raiding the armoury, he'd managed to talk her into handing over some information on the equipment and had settled on a pulse rifle for himself.

Mordin had gone with a plasma cutter, simply because it was the smallest of the weapons available and quite frankly what else could the doctor use? He was a scientist not a soldier.

Zaeed on the other hand, simply shrugged as he finished examining the flame thrower he'd picked out for himself. "What? Everything we've faced so far has tried to get in close, dig there claws in…I say let them try. Fry the sons of bitches." Jacob wanted to argue further, but after a moment he simply shook his head and inserted the first clip into his new rifle.

"Whatever man, but you're on point form now on."

The mercenary simply chuckled. "Whatever makes you feel better mate. But I've handled bigger weapons then this before, you've got nothing to worry about, from me anyway." He spared a glance towards Mordin, whom was examining the cutter like it was a science experiement.

"Interesting deisgn. Clearly not meant for combat but dangerously effective at it regardless." The salarian meanwhile was totally oblivious to the others staring at him.

Jacob simply shrugged. "So long as it can punch a hole through one of those freaks, it'll do." He muttered, moving towards the door.

"Hold up a second…" Only to stop and glance over his shoulder when Zaeed spoke a moment later. "What do you suppose is in this one?" He nodded towards a crate the word *Modules* pained along the side. The soldier simply shrugged, it had been dropped in a remote corner and away from the other equipment.

Cracking open the create revealed a series of devices that the squad didn't recognize, though considering the weapons they were all sporting, that wasn't surprising.

One set were labelled *Stasis* the other *Kinesis*. Jacob idly snatched one of the modules from the second section and idly turned it over in his hands. "Looks like it attaches to the wrist somehow…Though no idea what it does. He'd be lying if he said he liked the idea of strapping it to his arm and giving it a shot. But quite frankly the little blue device looked harmless…

After a few moments hesitation, he clicked it into place, and when nothing adverse happened, nodded to the others. "Might be useful. Kendra said something about needing these things back in the fuel room."

Mordin collected one of each, though only chose to clip a stasis unit to his wrist for now. Zaeed didn't touch either and instead shook his head before backing away from the create, if it wasn't a weapon he wasn't to interested in using it.

Now they just needed to figure out how they worked. But there would be time for that later.

Making their way out of the armoury, the trio set off towards the centrifuge once again, their new weapons at the ready, and they were eager to put them to the test.

* * *

Another operating room, what a surprise. Isaac sighed as he swept the room in search of anything useful. A few medical items here and there that would help. Honestly though what did he expect from the medical wing though?

Surprisingly enough, he hadn't run into any necromoprhs since the barricade, which gave him a small measure of hope. Maybe it had served its purpose, and the people beyond it were still alive.

He refused to get his hopes up though. So far he'd only run into dead bodies and those, things that Kendra had identified as members of the crew. A couple he'd noted wore the tattered remains of uniforms, which only cemented the concept for him.

It was unnerving to say the least; so far he hadn't seen anything that explained the transformation from human to, whatever you wanted to call those, things. Zombies was the first thing that sprung to mind, but no zombies didn't mutate like that, aliens perhaps? He just didn't know.

After pocketing a handful of the medkits, he set off once again, another corridor followed. And as he swept through the darkened hall he noted several side doors, each one marked with a name.

At first he didn't pay it any heed, though as each doctor's name passed by curiosity began to tug at his mind. Maybe he could find out more information about this crazy nightmare if he checks out some of these offices?

Finally, the temptation got the best of him, and the engineer halted in front of a door. For some reason, this one above all the others drew his attention the most. A hand strayed to the panel as he briefly glanced at the name plate on the door. *Dr. Kyne, T.*

The door wasn't locked and opened without protest. Isaac's expectation of finding a torn apart room and blood everywhere was swiftly disproven. In fact aside from some papers scattered across the flood, it looked as though it had been left untouched.

More then likely this, Kyne fellow had been out of his office when the incident started. With no one present, they probably just left the office alone.

Sifting through the stacks of paper and other random objects on the doctors desk, the only thing he found that stood out were a few notes, medical reports and incident reports. And another of the logs like he'd found earlier.

Chances are it was nothing important. Though Isaac still downloaded the data and activated the log regardless, even the slightest shred of information was worth hearing.

Instead of a voice or image though, the hologram systems displayed a series of notes instead. Funny how despite all the damn notes scattered about the office, this guy still found time to put even more down on a holo disk.

_The vidlogs from the colony are poor quality, but the artifact does indeed appear to be a genuine Marker, the first to be found in Unitology's two hundred year history. I'm eager to get it on board the ship so I can study it properly._

_The potential here is enormous. Not just for me personally, though it's true I've dreamed of such a discovery for decades. But also to humanity, and the Church of Unitology in particular._

_This marker could herald the dawn of a new age for mankind, and I will do my part to ensure it comes to pass. I know the Church will be grateful, but the true recognition will come from all of humanity. On this day, we are blessed._

Isaac's eyes narrowed slightly as he idly read the log. Unitology, that word alone made him uneasy. Though the constant references to this *Marker* certainly didn't help put his mind at ease either.

For now though, he had more important things to worry about, and with a quick gesture the file closed and he backtracked out of the office and continued on his way. That had raised more questions then answers really, but he'd deal with them another time. Right now he had to pay a visit to the morgue.

* * *

A few twists and turns later, Jacob and his team finally reached the airlock that separated them from the centrifuge. Unsurprisingly it was locked, and for some reason Kendra had gone quiet and wouldn't answer the comm.

"Well, looks like were on our own." The Cerberus soldier muttered as he set to work hacking the airlock. He was hardly tech savvy, that was more Miranda or Tali's department, but he knew enough to get it open at least.

"Warning, centrifuge integrity compromised oxygen levels below safe levels." Jacob stopped midway through the process as the announcement reached their ears. Great…

"Everyone's rebreathers still working?" He asked, causing both Zaeed and Mordin to do a quick once over of their equipment. Shepard, thankfully had the foresight to suit everyone up with breather units in case the ship didn't have oxygen or atmosphere, luckily it had and they'd saved their supply. Now that they needed it though, they hopefully still had enough to get the job done.

"Still within nominal levels. Ready when you are."

"Yeah, I got enough left, should be fine for about ten minutes, fifteen if I stretch it." Zaeed confirmed a moment after Mordin. And with a nod Jacob finished the hacking and opened the airlock.

It was exactly how he'd expected it. One door leading into a sizeable circular chamber, and another door on the other side.

The trio stepped into the cycling chamber, and Jacob tapped the button to begin the process. A loud his filled the room as the air was sucked out and the airlock cycled them into the new environment.

Soon the hissing faded away, infect all sound died a few moments later as they entered the vacuum.

Giving their weapons and breathers one final check, the squad waited for the door to open. Only to receive more bad news in the process.

"Entering zero gravity." The VI happily informed them.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me…"

* * *

Having found nothing of particular interest in the other offices, Isaac had soon found his way to the morgue. And in turn his goal, the captain's body. How exactly he'd wound up dead, and stayed that way was a question the engineer wanted answered, but again, it was shelved in favour of just getting the current task done.

The door opened with its customary hiss and he idly raised his cutter and swept the interior. No sign of danger, but that wasn't reassuring.

The morgue was as he expected. Small spaces were inset all along the walls, each one a pull out table for a corpse to be laid. The unnerving thing was just how many there were. Easily a hundred by a rough estimate alone. And several were opened.

He had to offer a brief thanks to his rig as he carefully entered the room and inwardly cinrged at the sound of his boot landing in something wet. A quick glance downward confirmed the floor around the entrance was soaked with blood, and as his cutters flashlight played across the interior of the mogue, he noted the doorway wasn't the only placed that was bloodied.

"Great, looks like they came through here as well." Here and there he noted a few *leftovers* as he'd taken to thinking of them as. Remains of a body that either hadn't been resurrected through whatever means the necromorphs had used, or had been a survivor that had been painfully dismembered by the creatures for their resistance. Here though it could simply have been a corpse they'd ripped apart for some sick reason or another. There was certainly enough evidence –in his mind at least- to support them being cannibals…

He pushed the thought aside and instead focused on his goal. Namely the enclosed space on the opposite side of the morgue, and the rig wearing corpse layed out on the operating table that lay beyond the glass.

That had to be the captain on the table. But who was the person with him? Isaac tightened his grip on his plasma cutter as he cautiously advanced.

The closer he got, the more unnerving the scene became. The figure turned out to be a woman, a doctor if he were to judge. Who was humming quietly as she took a bone saw to the captains body. Obviously she was performing an autopsy or something. But how was she still alive, and why the hell was she doing it now while the ship was under attack?

She seemed so, peaceful, as though oblivious to the nightmare around her. And as the engineer noted, the necromph corpse laying mere feet away from her in the room as well. "What the…"

Isaac paused for a moment and weighed his options, before lifting his free hand and lightly tapping on the glass. The woman jumped at the sound and whipped around to face him, the saw in her hand snapping up into a defensive position.

The engineer instinctively took a step back and raised his hands to show he didn't mean any harm. Of course he didn't think she could get through the glass, but this being the first survivor he'd run into, he didn't want to make an enemy out of her.

Her head tilted slightly as she examined him, and Isaac cringed at the sight of her. Blood marred her face and neck, and if he were to judge it looked like she'd sliced her neck open at some point. Maybe she had been attacked at some point by the creature. Maybe she was traumatized or something and had sunk into shock…There were to many possibility's, to few answers.

And, once again, he wouldn't be getting them. As the doctor tried to say something, her words coming out as gurgled mutterings that he couldn't understand, and then she brought the saw to her throat. "Wait, Stop!" The glass worked both ways, she couldn't attack him, and he couldn't stop her as she ran the bone saw across her throat, a fresh torrent of blood flowed from her neck. And she crumpled to the floor a second later.

"Damn it!" His fist slammed into the glass hard enough to crack it. And despite the padding and metal, he still felt a throbbing pain form in his knuckles. "What, the, fuck, is going on here!" He growled before tearing his gaze away from the grizzly sight.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the image of the doctor's suicide from his mind and turned away from the glass. There had to be a way to get into the room, he had a job to do.

A quick survey revealed a door off to one side. And he set off without a second glance, which of course meant he missed the odd creature that had crept into the room via the overhead vent…

Tapping the command on the door, Isaac growled when it refused to open. "Damn it." He slammed his fist into the panel again, and it simply blinked orange and remained locked.

Would nothing go right today?

He'd barely began working on the panel in an attempt to hack the controls, when a loud crash caused him to spin around.

A loud growl followed the sound, accompanied by the crunching of glass underfoot as the newly resurrected captain smashed it's way through the window and stalked towards Isaac. Despite his reanimation, the corpse was still in bad shape as a result of the doctor slicing him open. Though it hardly mattered, the necromorph didn't need organs or blood to survive.

It only took a few steps, before Isaac brought his plasma cutter to bear and pulled the trigger. The first round struck the creature in the shoulder and caused it to stumble, the second ripped the arm clean off.

And the third ripped a leg out from under it. The engineer had done this for so long now that it was almost instinctive to rip the limps off and put the monsters down in record time. The captain, being newly reanimated was no different, and was down and out in seconds.

Ignoring the rapidly spreading pool of blood around the body. Isaac carefully stepped forward and sunk into a crouch next to the corpse, his cutter loosely aimed towards it as he examined the remains of the captain's rig.

A second later he switched his comm. on and stood. "Kendra, I found the captain. I have the data you need, transmitting now…"

"Excellent, now I can finally access the data here. Standby." Isaac nodded slightly, there was nothing else to be done here. Stepping past he captains remains he set off towards the door once again.

How exactly had he woken up though? Is it some kind of virus that was spreading from person to person, forcing them back to life once the heart stops beating? Or had the doctor done something to cause the mutation?

The engineer sighed heavily as he forced the thoughts to the back of his mind. He was asking questions he couldn't answer, hopefully Kendra would find something soon enough…

He'd almost made it to the door. When the light blinked and it swung open of its own accord. Causing the engineer to pause as a familiar and very unwelcome figure stomped through the door. It's eyes fixated on him, and a low growl escaped the hulking necromoph as its claws clicked together in anticipation.

"Oh…Hell…" Despite himself. Isaac shuddered as the hunter began to advance, deliberately putting itself between him and the door at all times. He couldn't fight it, it would simply regenerate. But he couldn't just run past it and escape; it'd bisect him in a heartbeat.

This wasn't going to end well…

* * *

"When I get my hands on that…That…Bosh'tet! I'm going to…" Tali cut herself off as the sound of yet another vent cover being ripped apart warned her of another of the damn creatures entering the room.

Since Isaac had vanished she'd been fighting these things almost endlessly. Luckily they hadn't show up in great numbers just yet, but she was fast running out of ammo, and her arm was getting sore from the recoil the cutter sported.

Silence followed the vent opening however. And Tali's eyes darted from shadow to shadow as she slowly backed herself into a corner. There were too many possibility's as to where the creature was. And while she couldn't see it that left them all open.

A minute of tense silence passed, before a shadow moved on the edge of her vision and caused Tali to turn, weapon rising as she prepared to deal with the threat.

Sadly the movement turned out to be the automated door closing due to her having moved far enough away.

Cursing her nerves, she was in the process of scanning the room again when the necromorph decided to take advantage of her lapse in concentration, and swiftly dropped from an overhead catwalk and took a swing at her.

Having backed herself into a corner with the hope being to avoid getting struck from behind. The quarian had nowhere to go, and yelped as the scythe like blade cut into her stomach.

Before it could strike again, she brought her cutter up with one hand and, ignoring the jarring recoil fired, the first round knocked the necromorph back several paces. And the resulting elven put it down for good, and dismembered it behind recognition.

Panting heavily, Tali continued pulling the trigger, the distinct clicks going unnoticed as the adrenalin and shock finally began to wear off.

As she fought to catch her breath, she slowly removed her hand from her stomach where the creature had struck. Her fingers came away slick with blood. "Keelah!" Her suit had been breached! Who knew what kind of bacteria that thing had on its claws!

Tali's already rapid breaths grew shallower as the realization sunk in. Of course her suit would auto seal and Medi-gel would patch the wound. But what about anything already in her blood, her immune system was weak enough as it was, without testing it against those, things.

Despite her health being at stake, the machinist simply waited for the pain to die down as the gel took effect, then simply set off towards the door, the quarantine having lifted sometime during her panic fuelled dismembering of the creature.

As she stumbled through the corridors, she mentally recalled her previous trip through the halls with Isaac and backtracked. She needed to find the tram, and luckily she'd been paying attention to the few signs that lay scattered the ship.

After what felt like an hour of wandering aimlessly, Tali finally located the tram. It was thankfully still at the station and waiting for her. She didn't drop her guard however, despite the platform being well lit, for the most part and the tram being right there. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was dreadfully wrong with this situation.

It was almost too easy.

Her cutter shook slightly as she brought it up into a firing position and carefully approached the tram. Her caution was in vain however as she slowly entered the tram and swept the interior. There didn't appear to be any danger.

A relieved sigh escaped her as she tucked her weapon back into its holster and started toying with the controls. If she could set it to the bridge, then she could get the medical supplies to Shepard

She'd barely finished punching in the commands, when a warning flashed up to indicate the doors couldn't shut due to an obstruction. A moment later it vanished and she felt the tram jolt into motion.

"Keelah…" Drawing her cutter once again, Tali spun around to face the tram behind her. Either Isaac or another survivor had been following her. Or she was in trouble.

As she began to inch forwards, the tram passed through a darkened section of ship, thus plunging most of the tram into darkness and making it difficult to see much beyond where she was standing.

What the quarian did see as a result. Was the familiar glowing bars of a helmet visor as it shifted to face her in the darkness. "I-Isaac!" He was alive!

As the lights clicked back on however, she heard a low growl escape the engineer, and heard the unmistakable scraping of scythe like talons grinding together in preparation for a kill.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

"Damn you're even uglier up close." Isaac commented bitterly as the hunter lashed out with its talons, the engineer barely managed to leap back in time. His cutter snapped up a second later and he swiftly pulled the trigger.

The first shot caught the necromorph in the side though if anything it didn't even seem to notice the injury as it lashed out again and caused him to dodge a second time. "Tough bugger…" Isaac mumbled as he fired again, then a third time. Each shot seemed even less effective then the last.

Despite the constant barrage of plasma fire. The creature kept slowly inching forwards, and in turn pushed the engineer back. A fifth and sixth shot were ignored as well, the seventh caused it to stagger but still kept advancing, and the eighth.

A loud click replaced what should have been the loud boom of the cutter firing. And Isaac's eyes briefly snapped down to the holographic display on his weapon. The indicator was red, and the counter was at 0. "Oh you've got to be kidding…" The necromorph made an odd sound as he began searching for a replacement power pack. The engineer couldn't tell if it was growling, or laughing at him. Either way it wasn't pleasant sound.

Again he leapt back as it lashed out with a bloodied scythe blade, this time he felt the claw scrape against his rig. It was getting faster too…He continued to inch backwards as it closed in, until he finally felt something solid against his lower back. Risking a glance he realized it had backed him up against the operating table that the captain had originally been on. Which meant the only way past it was through the shattered glass window that it was currently occupying.

Trapped and alone, not exactly the way he wanted to go down fighting. But then again he wasn't out of options, not yet.

Despite the grim situation, a smirk formed as he placed his free hand on the table and waited for the creature to advance. It didn't disappoint either as a second later it lashed out again. With a surprise show of agility he managed to leap backwards and slid over the table. Somehow landing in a crouch on the other side.

If the necromorph was surprised, it didn't show it as it growled and moved to following him. Before it could move to far however the engineer lashed out with one hand, thin coils of electricity flowed from his fingertips and connected with the table for a brief moment, before he wrenched it out of its restraints and flung it towards the hunter.

Naturally where plasma failed to do any noticeable damage. A solid steel operating table moving at the speed of a bullet was a different matter entirely.

A loud crunch followed the impact, and Isaac winced at the sickening sound. Luckily it had worked as intended and the hunter was swiftly sent crashing to the deck with the heavy table on top of it.

Down but not out it was already struggling to get up when he dashed past it and put a fair distance between himself and the necromoprh. "Lets see you regenerate from that!" He growled, one fist striking the open command on the door.

As soon as it was open he ducked through and ensured it closed behind him. Reloading his cutter, he fired a single shot into the controls and fried the systems. As a result the door swiftly locked down and, until fixed wouldn't open again.

Chances are it would simply cut through the door and keep coming. But at least it brought him a few second head start. Which he wasted no time using as he broke into a jog back down the corridor. He had no idea where he was going to go from here, but it was better then waiting for the hunter to come looking for him again.

* * *

The door opened silently. And the trio carefully scanned the interior, or what little they could see of the room before slowly filing through the airlock.

Luckily they had come prepared and even the zero gravity didn't slow them down. Jacob's eyes darted about the massive chamber as the entered, easily picking out possible threats and non essential items floating lifeless about the room. Several corpses, likely engineers or other crew members drifted aimlessly in various states of dismemberment.

In the centre of the room was what was unmistakably the centrifuge they'd come to fix. To Jacob it was a complete mess of hardware and metal. Though to someone like Tali it was probably a marvel to behold.

He wasn't an engineer though, so it lost a lot of its splendour.

"Okay, that looks like what were here to fix…Lets get to work." He muttered into his comm. naturally the vacuum drained all sound, forcing them to use their comms to communicate. Inching forwards, he carefully peered over the edge of the catwalk they were perched on and scanned the ground below.

To one side of the device he could see another, smaller object. Maybe that was a terminal or something they could use...Only one way to find out.

"Alright, cover me." He called out, before shifting his weight slightly. A moment later he pushed off, the clamps in his boots detected the motion and released, allowing him to propel himself forward and towards the ground below.

From there it was a simple mater to swing around and land feet first on the deck, the clamps easily locking him place a moment later. Bringing his new rifle up to his shoulder, he scanned the room while Mordin and Zaeed swiftly followed him down.

"Alright. Lets see how we can bring this thing back online." The soldier said quietly, more to himself then the squad, before slowly advancing on what he assumed was a terminal.

As he drew closer however he realized that it wasn't a terminal, rather it was some form of automated machinery. A section facing the main centrifuge was rapidly spinning and a quick glance confirmed there was a similar section on the larger device. The only difference being that it was a drill like section on the smaller machinery, and a carefully made hole on the other. Clearly it was meant to just slide into place. But the question was, how were they going to move it?

Before he could dwell on the situation any further, a bright flash that lit up the floor nearby drew his attention, swiftly followed by another. Whipping around he spotted Mordin firing his cutter at something that, as soon as his gaze fell upon it, leapt away from the wall it was clinging to and vanished from sight.

"Great, as if this situation wasn't difficult enough." Jacob cursed as he brought his rifle up to assist the scientist. "Where did it go?"

"Moves fast. Also blends well with shadows…Could be anywhere." Once again, the salarian spoke the truth and only made the situation worse.

"Zaeed, Mordin, you deal with it. I'll get the centrifuge back online!" The Cerberus soldier called out, before spinning around and breaking into a jog towards the machinery.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's more then one of those bloody things in here." The mercenary warned him as he hefted his flamethrower and waited for the creatures to come within range.

* * *

Tali felt her hands quiver slightly as she brought her plasma cutter up and took aim at the creature that was slowly advancing on her. Aside from the helmet, it still had tattered pieces of Isaac's armour across its body. Though the majority had been torn apart during its mutation.

It was different to most of the necromorophs she'd faced as well. Aside from it being her friend, she noted the scythe blade talons actually had sprouted out of its back, and he still had his arms, the fingers were slimmer and extended into vicious claws that would no doubt rend flesh with a simple flick of the wrist.

The helmet tilted slightly as it took a step forward, and Tali took one back, still she refused to fire. "I-Isaac…What the hell did they do to you?" She felt both anger and sorrow claw at her heart as she tried to steady her aim, and if anything only made it worse.

Something resembling recognition seemed to pass through the former engineer, as it shifted back and stared at her for a long moment. In that brief instant Tali almost lowered the weapon, maybe despite the horrible fate, Isaac was still in there somewhere.

The moment passed however, and the creature snarled, its claws flexing eagerly as it began to advance once again. The quarian shivered as she backed up further. She'd been near the front of the tram when this had started, which meant she didn't have anywhere to go, and who knew how long it would be until the tram pulled stopped.

As if to taunt her, the necromorph extended one talon and dragged it along the wall as it advanced. Sparks and screeching metal accompanied the action, and proved just how dangerous the engineer had become.

"Isaac. Snap out of it!" She almost begged as the gap between them rapidly lessened. She had to shoot, or risk getting ripped apart. But at the same time if there was even the slimmest chance Isaac was still alive in some fashion…She couldn't take that chance.

In response to her hesitation. The necromorph leapt forwards, its talons lashing out and missing her visor by less then an inch. Before she could fire however, its mutated hands batted the cutter aside and delivered a powerful blow to her side which snet her reeling back into the wall of the tram. Gasping for breath, she was vaguely aware of a loud cracking sound. Though whether it was her bones or the window of the tram she didn't know.

Her ribs were hurting enough for it to be both however. The brief disorientation she suffered from the blow didn't help either. And before she could shake it off she felt one of the engineers claws close around her throat, the tips of its fingers dug painfully into her neck, cutting off her ability to breath.

She tried to lash out with her feet, though despite hitting the creature several times, it's iron grip only tightened further. Her only other option was the shotgun clamped to her suit. But the weapon was attached to her back, and she couldn't reach it.

Tali continued to weakly squirm and struggle, her hands clamped down on the necromorphs wrist and tried to pry it off her neck. But it proved far stronger then her. And with each passing second, she felt what little strength she had fading. The edges of her vision were rapidly dimming, and the darkness was very slowly crawling inwards.

She angled one last kick and managed to hit the engineer in the stomach, but it didn't even notice.

A weak plea for help escaped her as she watched the scythe blades flexing in preparation to strike. But once again what she assumed was Isaac didn't pay her any attention. It's single minded desire to kill overriding everything else.

It seemed fate wasn't done with the quarian however. As a moment before she gave up fighting the tram suddenly jolted violently. Why, Tali didn't know. But whatever the reason it caused the engineer to lose balance and he dropped her to the deck with a loud thud before he was ended up crashing to the floor himself.

Gasping for breath. She ignored the pain in her throat and side as she dragged herself a few inches away from the necromorph and struggled to pull herself back to her feet.

Luckily she wasn't the only one having difficulty. And she was able to haul herself upright thanks to the computer terminal a second before the engineer did.

Tali didn't waste any time retrieving her shotgun. Before the creature could close the gap again she snapped her weapon up to her shoulder. Again a flare of realization passed through the creature, and it halted at the sight of the weapon.

"I'm sorry…" Tali gasped her voice barely above a faint whisper due to her recently abused throat. Before the engineer could act, she pulled the trigger. The force of the blast enough to send it crashing back into the wall behind it.

A growl escaped the creature, and the quarian fired again, and a third time. She kept firing until it finally stopped moving. Then fired one last shot for good measure.

The weapon clattered to the floor a moment afterwards. And Tali stumbled backwards until her back struck the wall of the tram. Soon after she slid into a sitting position. A quiet sigh escaped her as she waited for the tram to finally reach its destination. And at the same time tried her best to banish the memory of what she'd just done.

* * *

Another bright flash signalled Mordin firing his cutter. Though by this point Jacob had tuned the distracting flashes out as he toyed with the machine. He couldn't just push it into place. It was too heavy. He'd need either help, but considering the squad was busy with the creatures that wasn't an option. Or some other means of moving it.

Other means…

Jacob spared a glance towards the module he'd clipped to his wrist. He had no idea what it did, but what better time was there to test it? The only question was, how the heck did it work?

There didn't appear to be any buttons to push. As he toyed with it however he must have flexed his wrist just right. As the device abruptly activated, a brief flash was the first clue it worked. Followed by strange tendrils of electricity arching between his fingers and the machinery he'd been trying to move. "Okay, guess that's how you turn it on…But how does-"Out of curiosity he shifted his hand, and noted with a raised eyebrow that the object he was tethered too shifted slightly in the same direction.

Moving his hand a little faster and further. He noted it moved along with his hand. "Nice." It was a simple matter after that to start dragging the machinery into place. Or so he thought anyway.

As it reached its destination a shower of sparks flashed from the point of contact and the smaller object abruptly skidded away in the opposite direction. "Damn it!" Tethering it again, he tried a second time, same result. It was moving to fast to lock into place, they'd have to slow it down somehow…

He spared a glance over his shoulder as the rapid flashes abruptly halted. Mordin was busy reloading, and the strange, half human half, scorpion creatures that had been attacking them had halted for the time being. The squad had already killed three, but more lurked just out of sight no doubt. "Mordin! You up for testing that module?" The salarian nodded eagerly as he wandered over.

"Certainly, haven't had time to discover its property's. Several theory's though, eager to test them." The scientist replied as he paused to examine the stasis unit.

"This one works through wrist movement it seems…Maybe yours does too." Jacob shrugged slightly as he watched Mordin toy with the device and make a few gestures as he experimented.

Finally he must have done the right thing as a small ball of light flashed out of his hand. Before either could even blink it struck the machinery. Which suddenly halted, or as a closer inspection revealed, slowed it to a crawl. "Whoa, it slows things down huh?"

"Fascinating, device has speed altering properties. Can't wait to experiment further." Jacob shook his head as he used his kinsis module to drag the machinery back into position. Unlike last time however, it locked in place and stayed there.

The centrifuge didn't power up however. Which meant only one thing. "There must be another of these things to reattach." Without pause he began circling the centrifuge in search of either a panel to manually restart it. Or a second power supply.

Sure enough, they found a second power unit as Jacob came to think of them as on the opposite side. And using the same method they shifted it into place. The darkened room abruptly lit up as power began to flow back into the room. Naturally the sudden change in lighting revealed a less then pleasing sight.

Namely the half dozen necromorphs that had been carefully creeping across the roof and walls unnoticed up until this point.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity the tram halted and the doors automatically opened. Tali's head perked up slightly at the noise, though it took several minutes for her to sum up the strength to stand and stumble out of the tram.

No sooner had she vacated, the tram jolted into motion, bound for parts unknown. She paid it no mind however and instead set off down the only corridor that was available. Unknown to her she was walking the very same path her comrades had. She knew Shepard was down here somewhere, she only hoped she wasn't too late.

Too late again more accurately.

Tali bit her lip and forced the guilt back down. She couldn't dwell on that now, she had to keep moving and focus on getting to Shepard. She noted the glass corridor only vaguely as she entered it.

Soon after she stepped out onto the bridge. And despite the situation, she swiftly halted, her eyes widening slightly at just how massive the bridge was. She'd been largely amazed at the size of the ship thus far. But this was by far the biggest marvel she'd encountered yet.

This presented a problem however, as the awe died down. She realized with mounting horror that the bridge was ripped to shreds and deserted. A quick sweep of the bridge revealed only a door. Nothing else.

Clicking her comm. on she pressed a hand to the side of her helmet and hoped someone would answer. "This is Tali. I'm on the bridge, where are you?" She was hoping to contact the soldier from earlier. Though a different, voice greeted her.

"Tali? We thought you were dead!" Garrus' voice crackled in her ear, and the quarian smiled slightly, finally a familiar voice.

"Garrus, it's good to hear from you. I was beginning to think I was the only one left." She breathed a relieved sigh as a hand tapped the button on the door. "You're close by I assume?"

"Yeah, there's an elevator on the bridge, take it down and you'll find us." She nodded slightly, and just in time the lift doors opened and she stepped inside a second later.

"Got it. On my way down now…How's Shepard doing?" She fidgeted slightly as the elevator began its descent. Every passing second was maddening as she waited anxiously.

"She's holding up. Her injures were pretty bad, but I doubt it'll keep her down for much longer. She's been through worse." Tali nodded slightly again, she knew Garrus couldn't see her, but it was instinctive.

"Good, I managed to find some medical supplies; hopefully it'll help speed her recovery."

The elevator halted a moment later, and she switched her comm. off as the door opened. Naturally Garrus was just on the other side waiting for her along with Jack. Both had their weapons ready, but thankfully not aimed at the doors, having been warned ahead of time she was coming.

Garrus offered the turian equivalent of a smile upon seeing her. "Gangs almost all here." He said with a brief laugh. "Can't imagine how you managed to survive out there on your own for so long."

It was obvious the moment he said it that he'd struck a nerve somehow. As Tali's visor dropped to the deck and she wrung her hands together. "I wasn't alone. But I'll explain later, for now lets just see what we can do about Shepard." She really didn't feel like explaining how she'd been forced to kill her friend prior to arriving here.

* * *

With everything done on the medical deck. Isaac soon found himself back at the tram station. With the captain's rig data transferred to Kendra, she could start making sense of the situation. And in turn hopefully find a way to stop it.

For some reason the necromorphs were absent along the path back through the ship. He had a feeling this was due to some other matter entirely. He didn't want to dwell on it being Tali that was drawing them away. But at the same time, who else was there? She'd briefly mentioned other squad members, but surely if they were still alive they'd have had the common sense to escape by now.

He pushed the thought aside for now and instead kept moving through the ship. He hadn't seen the hunter either. With luck it was still recovering after having its skull caved in by the table. Or maybe it was down for good this time. He held no illusion that it was trapped for good I the morgue, after all it would probably just rip the door off and throw it at him sooner then give up and die.

No, his best bet was to get off the medical deck and put as much distance between him and it as possible.

This plan was halted somewhat by a grim discovery. Namely the tram not being at the station. "Aww hell." Sighing heavily, the engineer activated his comm. "Kendra, I'm at the station, but the trams missing. Can you locate it and get it back here?"

"That's, strange, hold on." Isaac certainly didn't like her tone, the fact that she didn't already know where it was, was troubling to say the least. Though he didn't comment, instead he spared a glance over his shoulder to ensure nothing was following him and sighed impatiently.

"Got it, it just pulled in at the bridge…Don't know, maybe Hammond used it or something…Okay, it's on its way back. Should be there in a minute." Isaac frowned, Hammond might have used it? Last time she mentioned him, he was missing. Did she find something out while he was getting the codes?

He made a mental note to ask later. Right now he just wanted off the medical deck.

* * *

Despite the damage done to its platform. Legion had already formed a plan of action the moment he'd seen Kasumi losing her grip. The biggest problem had been figuring out a way to stop her being pulled out into space without risking its own well being. It wouldn't do either of them any good if he wound up getting dragged out into the void with her.

A quick scan of the hanger revealed that the decompression cycle was ending, and the pressure was returning to normal. Though that would take a few seconds. Seconds the thief didn't have.

Letting go of the ruined tank, the geth leapt towards the hanger doors. And despite its damaged limbs, easily shifted around and planted its feet firmly against the deck. Like the rest of the squad he had gravity clamps that locked him into place.

Despite Legions focus being elsewhere, several of the programs questioned why Kasumi hadn't used her own stabilizers to stop from being pulled out the doors. In the end they placed it on emotions clouding rational thinking. After all she'd been injured and was likely panicking at that point in time.

Even while this debate was occurring, the geth kept its focus on the thief. And as soon as she came within reach it managed to grab a hold of her shoulder and stopped her from sliding any further.

Legion knew that was a bad move, as he had grabbed her by her injured arm. But there really wasn't any other option. Not without risking losing his grip or being dragged along with her. Luckily the environment had stabilized by this point, and all he had to do was hold onto her long enough for the pressure to restore.

Once he was sure she was safe, he loosened his grip on her injured arm and gently let her slide back to the deck.

His comm. clicked on a second later. "Hanger secured." He stated simply, before shutting it down and turning his attention to the injured thief. She wasn't about to be going anywhere on her own. And she was still bleeding badly.

Another brief debate occurred, and in less then a second he'd settled on a plan.

Gently picking Kasumi up once again, he set off for the elevator. He could repair himself, not a human though. She needed a medical officer. And the only one he knew of was on a higher deck.

As he stepped into the lift and tapped the button for the crews quarters. He felt the ship shudder as its engines finally powered up and pulled them away from the Ishimura. At least the ship would be safe for a while…

* * *

"Her vitals are pretty stable…Though she took a nasty hit from…Whatever did this." The commander cringed slightly as her headache returned in full force, though it was only made worse as a mixture of voices began to assault her ears.

"I'm surprised a few bruises and a couple of broken bones are all she got after that. Suppose the medi-gel helped."

"Hold on, she's waking up!" Shepard offered a barely audible groan as she forced her eyes open. The first thing she did was shut them again however as a blinding light dazzled her and made her headache worsen.

It was several minutes later before she finally risked opening them again. "How are you feeling?" Her gaze shifted slightly to focus on, Garrus? When'd he get here?

"I've been better." She mumbled, a weak smile tugging at her lips for a moment, before it faded. "How long was I out?" She had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer.

"About three hours." The turian replied with a shrug, Shepard simply groaned in response.

"Great, I miss much?"

"Not really, Tali found some medical supplies; the Normandy is a safe distance away to prevent infestation. And, well that's about it. Pretty uneventful so far." Melina offered a slight smirk; trust Garrus to consider all that uneventful. She had a feeling there was more she wasn't being told, but given she had only just woken up, dumping everything on her lap was probably a bad idea, it certainly wasn't something she'd do at any rate.

"Tali's alive?" She perked up slightly as the words sunk in. Garrus nodded slightly, before shifting aside to reveal the quarian was seated across from her. Shepard noted her head was tilted downwards and, if she had to hazard a guess the machinist was sleeping.

"She's had a rough couple of hours…" Garrus mumbled, his gaze shifting away from Tali and back to Shepard. "Worse then the rest of us I'd wager."

Melina spared another glance towards Tali, before shaking her head. Considering she was made into a damn punching bag, she couldn't imagine what had happened to her friend that was worse…

Her thoughts were interrupted as the ship abruptly jolted. Tali's head slowly lifted slightly, though it seemed she was to out of it to notice. A moment later the ship jolted again. "What the hell?"


	16. Chapter Sixteen

"Okay, what the hell happened here?" Isaac commented as he stepped into the tram. Blood stained the wall and windows on one side. And the other side, the wall had been dented and the glass shattered. Crumpled in a heap on the floor was what appeared to be another rnecromorph, one sporting several pieces of a engineering rig.

Despite himself, a shudder passed through him as he crept around the corpse and made his way to the terminal.

Before he could pick a destination however, a violent shudder rocked the ship. Followed soon after by a second, worse jolt.

Luckily Isaac was able to grab the terminal before he ended up joining the necromorph in a heap on the floor. "Kendra! What the hell just happened?" He was aware of engine trouble, though Hammond had said they needed the captain's codes before they could do much about it.

Much as he wanted to think it was the ship crashing, the jolts weren't consistent with gravitational pull and hitting the atmosphere. "The engines are stabilized, A couple of survivors restored our orbit, but we've run straight into a asteroid field!"

Another shockwave ripped through the ship and Isaac cursed when his head was thrown forwards into the terminal. His helmet took the brunt of the blow, but he still felt a thin trail of blood run down the side of his face. "Survivors?" He finally asked, his words slightly slurred as he shook off the disorientation from the blow. "I thought we were the only ones left."

"I have no idea who they were. Last contact I had with them they were heading for the centrifuge. That's back online but I haven't heard from them since. We have to assume the worst for now." Isaac nodded slightly. While he didn't like the idea of losing more people on this mission. The fact remained that they had to focus on the current crisis, namely not getting turned into space dust by the asteroid field.

"Wait a minute…Shouldn't the ADS systems be dealing with that?" As he spoke the engineer tapped the command for the bridge and fell into an empty and unbroken seat.

"The ADS isn't responding. I can't tell what the problem is from here. You're best bet is to get to the bridge and try to manually reactive them. Hopefully Hammond is still there and can help you." The engineer raised an eyebrow; there was a noticeable reluctance behind that last sentence. Though he pushed it aside for now. They had bigger things to worry about.

"Got it, lets hope he's still alive…" Shutting his comm. off, Isaac spared one last glance towards the former engineer. Before popping the seals on his helmet and carefully easing it off. Setting it on the seat next to him, he pressed a palm to his forehead. "Let's just hope we can fix the cannons…"

* * *

Shepard offered a colourful curse as she stumbled out of the escape pod she'd been recovering in, Garrus right behind her. "What the hell just happened!" She snapped, her gaze falling upon Hammond, he knew the ship better then anyone after all.

"We've run into the asteroid field. My guess is someone fixed the engines, probably Isaac. But it'll make little difference if we end up smashed into rubble up here." Shepard paused for a moment at the mention of Isaac, that wasn't a name she recognized, but right now she didn't care.

"Alright, what do you suggest? We can't steer this ship ourselves." She made a slight gesture towards the rest of her squad. "Were soldiers not pilots."

"We don't have to! The Ishimura has a array of ADS cannons. They should automatically track and destroy anything that comes within range…Something must have disabled the automated systems." Hammond sighed heavily as he explained the situation to a rather bewildered Shepard. Luckily she understood enough.

"Okay, can we use the cannons manually? Or better yet can we restore the turrets from here?" Melina asked, another jolt causing her to stumble. Luckily Garrus was still close enough to steady her before she crashed into a wall.

"We can use the cannons, yes. But it won't be as effective…The systems should be on the bridge or close by."

Shepard hesitated for a moment, before nodding. "Alright. Garrus, Thane and Jack. You three deal with the turrets. Me, Hammond, Miranda and Tali will head to the bridge and see about restoring the systems.

Everyone either nodded or offered a brief confirmation, "Alright, lets move!"

Hammond swiftly gave out directions as to how to get the cannons, before leading the rest of the squad back towards the elevator.

Garrus hesitated for a moment as the rest of the team vanished around a corner. "Too bad we don't know what an ADS cannon is…Hopefully it comes with a manual..." He muttered, before setting off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Several seconds passed in silence, before Shepard finally spoke, the abrupt sound causing Tali to jump. "You okay Tali?" The quarian hesitated for a moment as her gaze shifted to the commander. Shepard's expression mirrored the concern in her voice.

"I'm fine. Just a little shaken up by everything that's happened." She muttered hastily, her voice not at all convincing, but Shepard relented for the time being and glanced away.

In truth Tali was not fine. The injury she'd sustained earlier was still paining her even with the medi-gel applied to it and in her system, it wasn't helping. If her suit had been breached, chances are she had suffered an infection. But the last thing she wanted was Shepard and the rest of the squad putting her well being above the mission.

Any further concerns were put to rest a moment later as the elevator doors opened once again onto the bridge. It was much the same as they'd left it, thankfully. Though as the squad inched through the doors and scanned the bridge, an unmistakable sense of, dread began to set in. Something wasn't right here.

"Eyes sharp. Weapons ready at all times." Shepard warned as she pulled her helmet back on and sealed it. There was little risk of depressurization on the bridge. But she wasn't about to take chances and leave her head exposed for those things to take a bite out of.

"Where exactly are the ADS controls?" Miranda asked as silence descended over the group, each person was scanning the bridge with whatever weapon they had in hand. The unease only seemed to grow worse at how, silent the bridge was. Now and then a shudder would pass through the ship as another asteroid struck the hull, but it was far enough away to not cause any problems for them just yet.

Hammond was silent for a long moment, before shaking his head. "I don't know exactly. For all I know it might not even be on the bridge. But it's as good a place as any to start."

The other three squad members exchanged a worried glance, before they began to spread out and examine the various computer terminals scattered about the bridge. One of them had to be the right one…

* * *

"So, any ideas?" Jacob asked as he shouldered his new rifle. The creatures were closing in, slowly, but by now there were at least a dozen of them on all sides. Three verses twelve weren't good odds.

"If we can get back to the airlock, we can funnel them right into our guns. Here though we'll get turn apart in seconds." Zaeed responded as he watched the creatures moving about just on the edge of his range. If they came closer he could fry them with the flamethrower, but obviously they were smart enough to stay back. At least for now.

"Sounds good. But there's just one problem." The mercenary spared a glance over his shoulder when Jacob hesitated. "The centrifuge must have restored the gravity." He nodded towards the bodies and debris that now lay scattered about the chamber, having tumbled back to earth shortly after the power had come back on. Of course oxygen wasn't restored, but they couldn't have everything.

"Bloody perfect…" Jacob ignored the response and instead started glancing about the chamber. There had to be a way out of-

"There!" The soldier pointed towards a corner of the room, an elevator seemingly left waiting for them. "If it powered up with the rest of the chamber, then we can get back to the upper deck and to the airlock."

"Well, its as good a plan as any I suppose." Without any further debate the trio began to inch backwards towards the elevator. The necromorphs too began to creep forwards, but still kept out of firing rang. Jacob knew his rifle could hit them, but wasn't keen on trying and either being proven wrong, or spurring them into attacking and likely getting the squad overwhelmed.

No, the best bet right now was to just take advantage of their hesitation and get as far as possible before they attacked.

"Why are they holding back? They outnumber us…" Jacob finally brought up his concerns as he felt his foot strike the edge of the elevator. Despite slowly shuffling backwards they still made good time.

"Impossible to say. Intimidated by firepower perhaps? Seems unlikely, never stopped them before. Plan perhaps. Ambush waiting on higher level?" Mordin shrugged slightly. "Can't say, creatures difficult to study in these conditions."

"How about you go ask one of them nicely. Maybe he'll tell you what their planning." Zaeed growled as he slammed a fist into the terminal and they jolted into motion. Soon enough the platform reached the next level, -still to low- and halted.

"Damn it! We'll have to find another lift and keep going." Jacob was the first off the lift, his rifle at the read in case the necromorphs found another way up.

The, ledge he supposed it could be called was only a few feet wide; two of them would be able to move side by side at best. Single file would be the only way through here. Which made things awkward for them. If they got ambushed it would be difficult to bring their full firepower to bear, and that in turn meant the fight would be much more difficult.

Peering over the side, Jacob noted with a stab of unease that the, things had not only reached the base of the elevator, but were somehow scaling the walls to get up to them. "Damn these things don't know when to quit."

"Yeah well, neither do we." Zaeed stepped forward and peered over the side as well. Just in time to see the first of the necromorph's heads pop up over the edge of the platform.

In response he brought his flamethrower up and unleashed a torrent of flames down upon it. Had the pressure been restored, they would have heard it's howls of pain as the former crew member was sent falling back down to impact painfully with the deck below, it's skin literally melting off the bone from the high temperature of the napalm based weapon. "Damn this thing has got a bite to it."

Jacob nodded slightly, before withdrawing from the edge and sparing a glance left and right. The walls were more or less perfectly smooth, though he noted a few alcoves dotting the path, one of them had to be another elevator. "Okay, if we follow this around, we should be able to find another lift, or some sta-"

The Cerberus soldier was cut short as something grabbed the back of his uniform and roughly yanked him back towards the elevator. His first thought was it was a necromorph having somehow gotten the drop on them. Though as he struggled to get free he felt the grip abruptly release.

"Calm down!" Zaeed snapped as he let go. Before Jacob could ask what was wrong, the centrifuge answered the question for him. As one of the sections that had apparently began to rotate swept past at a alarming speed. "If you'd still been standing there that would have smashed you're head in."

Jacob found no reason to complain, he'd been focused on finding a way out, not on what was happening around them. "Thanks." He finally mumbled, before inching towards the edge of the alcove and peering out once again.

Several of the necromorph's had made it to their floor and were hastily scrambling into cover as the centrifuge swept around a second time. This time the soldier was aware of it and ducked back on his own. "Okay…That complicates things."

* * *

Luckily the corridors beneath the bridge were quite simple. Only going one way until they reached a split, one cannon in each side passage. Thane naturally took one, Garrus the other. Jack meanwhile simply watched their backs while they worked.

"Any idea how this thing works?" Jack finally asked as Garrus awkwardly fell into the seat and tried to familiarize himself with the controls. It wasn't overly complicated. But at the same time it wasn't any form of weapon system he'd run into before. Then again he could say that about the whole ship so far…

"Shouldn't be too hard. Never met a weapon I couldn't handle." He responded absentmindedly as he experimented with the controls. "Yeah, not hard." He confirmed as a few buttons presses later caused the systems to light up.

In the time it took the cannon to charge up, the ship had been struck three more times, one of which was powerful enough to almost throw him out of the seat, they were running out of time it seemed. A hologram popped up next to the view screen and cheerfully indicated the hull was down to seventy-five percent. "Yeah, no pressure…"

Gripping the controls tightly, he slowly adjusted the cannon and unleashed the first barrage, the rounds easily shattering the asteroid he'd targeted. "See, easy." He said smugly, Jack simply rolled her eyes before moving back to let him work.

* * *

It took a few minutes to form a plan, but Jacob was confident they could pull it off without getting smashed into the walls by the centrifuge. All they had to do was time it right, then make a made run for the next alcove before it swept around.

"Simple…Right." Zaeed commented sarcastically, before sparing a glance out of the one they were currently in. "And what do we do about the things that are hiding in those safety areas? I doubt their going to just let us stop by and leave again."

"That's what our guns are for, figured you'd have worked that out on your own man." The soldier made a point of hefting his rifle at this point to show what he meant." If their in the alcoves, we shoot them. Simple as that. The biggest danger is making sure we time this right, a second to slow and we'll end up splattered all over the walls."

"Fifteen seconds for a full rotation. Enough time to make it, barring any…Unforseen events." Mordin said as he finished tapping in a series of commands on his Omni-tool. Likely doing the math to ensure he was right.

"Well, it'll be a tight run, but we can make it." Jacob confirmed more to himself then the others. "We'll have to go one at a time though." It was dangerous at best for one of them, let alone all three to make a run for it. The slightest slip up would get them all killed.

Luckily they'd planned this out too, and as much as he liked the disliked the idea, Jacob had volunteered to go first. If he made it, Zaeed would be next, then Mordin. And if things went well they could plan for the rest of the trip. Hopefully the elevator would be in the first alcove and they could get the heck out of here without having to brave the centrifuge again.

Speaking of which. Jacob tensed slightly as he noted it was coming around again. "Alright, lets hope this works." The solider waited for a second longer, then the section of the machine swept past, and without pausing to think –he would have likely reconsidered this crazy plan if he did- he broke into a sprint and followed right along behind it.

It was faster then him to be sure, but he only had to make it to the next gap in the wall, not all the way around. And luckily managed to duck into the section a second before it came around missing him by inches. "Okay, made it!" He said into his comm., before casting a glance about the tiny nook.

Naturally it didn't have an elevator. Only a small device built into the wall. A display indicated it was an oxygen recharge station. Though he knew at a glance it wouldn't work with his suit, making the need to get out of this part of the ship all the more necessary, after all they didn't have that much air left in their rebreathers.

The soldiers grip on his rifle tightened as he briefly glanced upwards, the light didn't reach this part of the chamber to well, and he could have sworn he saw something moving.

When the centrifuge came around again, a flash of light briefly illuminated the necromorph.

It was the size of a small dog and clung to the wall like a spider, it's hands and feet splayed out around it as its head angled slightly to glare at Jacob. Due to the vacuum he couldn't hear the shrill screech it emitted, before a trio of tentacles burst from its back and began lashing out randomly.

That was all the incentive he needed to snap his rifle up and opened fire. Surprisingly, the weapon didn't have the recoil he was expecting, considering how fast it emptied the clip. The counter which conveniently displayed the moment he applied pressure to the trigger swiftly decreased in seconds, before flashing red when the last round was fired.

In the short four seconds it took to fire all thirty rounds, he'd ripped the creature to shreds, leaving little more then a bloody mess on the wall and floor when it had finally lost its grip.

Reloading, he spared a glance towards the entrance to the safety zone as the centrifuge swept past once again, and a moment later Zaeed stumbled into the alcove. "Okay, so far so good." Jacob nodded slightly.

"Mordin will be along in a minute, and then we can make a run for the next one…"

* * *

Another asteroid struck the ship. And Shepard winced as a warning siren briefly cut through the silence of the bridge and deafened her. Luckily it was silenced a moment later and she swiftly resumed scanning the various computer terminals.

There was plenty of systems here that both didn't make sense, and the ones that did were useless to them. As she scanned over them however, one of the computers listed several files, logs of some description. And despite the situation, curiosity got the best of her and the commander opened the first file.

A voice was the first thing to come over the speakers, and then soon after the monitor resolved into an image. Judging by the position it was a security camera, one on the bridge and located just above her by the looks. She was to busy watching the screen to look up and find it however.

The image showed three people, facing another, judging by the rather ornate design of his uniform, he was someone important.

"This is mutiny! You'll all be tried for mutiny!" The sole figure snapped as he glared at the trio. "Kyne make them listen to reason!"

"What the hell?" Shepard slowly leaned forward and rested her hands on the console. A dozen questions formed in her head as she watched the scene play out.

"Settle down, then." Another person, who appeared to be leading the three others, spoke before glancing over his shoulder. "Hold him."

The other two, whom had been standing still up till this point, exchanged nervous glances, before moving forward and swiftly restraining who she assumed was the captain.

"By maritime law Article 54-69, I hereby declare Captain Benjamin Mathias unfit for duty." The one who had been identified as Kyne stated calmly. Melina shook her head as she heard this, obviously there was a lot she didn't understand, but this seemed, drastic to her.

"The maker…must be delievered to the church!" The captain shouted, his tone slowly turning from anger to, what sounded like a pleading as he seemingly fought to regain control of the situation. "Terrance! Please!"

"The marker?" Shepard spared a glance over her shoulder; she could see Hammond working at another terminal a short distance away. Did he know about this? Or was he just as confused as she was on the subject? She'd have to find out, preferably sooner rather then later.

"I'm sorry Ben, but I can't let you do this." The commander's gaze snapped back to the screen. The camera was on a bad angle, but it looked like this, Kyne person was holding a needle, Melina cringed at the thought. This recording just got better and better…

"Traitor! Heretic!" The captain cried as he began struggling against the two solders. Shepard cringed again at the sight, she wasn't sure what to think of this.

"Hold his head." The doctor stated calmly as he finished preparing the needle. The captain continued yelling and struggling despite the crew's best attempts to restrain him. "Hold him!"

Shepard could only watch with mounting horror as the captain continued to fight, and Kyne tried to inject him with whatever the contents of the needle were.

The picture dissolved to static briefly. And a loud scream caused Melina to wince, by the time the picture returned, Kyne was staring seemingly in horror at the now limp form the two guards were holding.

"He-He's dead!" One of the crew shouted, his gaze instantly snapping to the doctor.

"No. It-It was an accident! I had to stop him!"

"Arrest the doctor!" The second guard snapped, his free hand jumping to a pistol clipped to his belt.

A second later the log ended and the picture froze.

Despite herself, Melina spared another glance towards Hammond. Just what the hell was happening on this ship? And how much of it did he know?

* * *

The tram halted at last. And Isaac breathed a sigh of relief; he'd expected something to go wrong with the asteroids slamming into the ship. But by some twist of luck he'd made it undamaged. Mostly, his head still throbbed from the earlier impact but it was nothing serious.

He was in the process of stepping around the necromorph's body. When his foot struck something metal and sent it clattering away. "What the-" He paused for a moment, before sinking into a crouch long enough to pick up the object.

His breath caught in his throat as he brought it up into the light. It was a plasma cutter, a new one at that, save a few minor scuffs here and there. There was a faint trace of blood on it as well, mainly around the handle. If he were to judge the person holding it must have been injured at some point, or had been touching someone that had been.

The ammo counter was half empty, which meant the gun had been used recently. "Tali." It had to be hers. But the question was where was she now?

Clipping the second weapon to his belt, he swiftly darted out of the tram and set off towards the bridge. First things first, he had to help reset the ADS cannons.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

Melina studied the screen for a moment longer, before closing the recording. There were others as well, but she didn't have time to watch them now. Another shudder passed through the ship and a second warning blared through the intercom.

"Even with you're squad manning the cannons. There just isn't enough to stop all of them!" Hammond called out, and Shepard nodded slightly as he pushed away from the terminal and continued her search. Two cannons wouldn't be able to protect the entire ship. Especially given they were directed to protect the bridge, the rest of the ship had its own ADS cannons to work with, and right now they were unmanned.

"Over here. I think I found it." Miranda abruptly called out. The commander didn't waste any time jogging over to her, though even still was beaten to her by Hammond.

Within a few moments he'd accessed the computer and nodded slightly. "Got it. This shouldn't take long…" Shepard spared a glance over her shoulder as she watched him work, Tali was busy at another terminal, doing what she couldn't say, but judging by how intent she appeared on her work, it must have been important.

That wasn't the reason she turned around however. The uneasy feeling she had since arriving on the bridge was growing worse by the second. Maybe it was due to her almost getting crushed by the brute earlier that was causing it. Or maybe it was the distinct lack of a body. If they'd killed it, shouldn't its corpse still be here?

She banished the thought and focused instead on the terminal as Hammond continued tapping away at the keys. "Damn it, something's wrong the systems won't reboot!" Melina bit her lip as she watched the screen, she wasn't a tech expert. And it showed as she tried and failed to study the tangled mess of code and screens that flashed up and vanished with alarming speed.

Blinking a few times, the commander swiftly averted her gaze and sighed. That was giving her a headache just watching.

"Commander…We've got problems." Shepard's gaze snapped around to Tali as she spoke, and it was obvious by the slight stammer to her words that it wasn't going to be good news.

* * *

Mordin made to the first alcove without incident as well. Which was lucky, or at least Jacob thought so. After all considering the kind of dangers they had faced it was a miracle, aside from being knocked out none of them had been injured so far.

He knew that luck was going to run out, and very soon. But the soldier wasn't about to say that. They had enough to worry about without starting to get superstitious.

Gripping his rifle tightly, Jacob spared a glance towards the next alcove. There was at least one of those things waiting for them in there; he'd seen it duck out of the way as the centrifuge had swept past. But that wasn't really something he could dwell on. They had to keep moving if they wanted to get out of here in one piece.

The centrifuge swept around again, and without pause Jacob broke into a sprint behind it. It only took a few seconds at best to reach the next. Though even as he ducked into the next safety area, the centrifuge missed him by inches at best. "Close one." He heard Zaeed mutter into the comm. though for now he simply ignored him in favour of searching for the necromorph that should have inhabited the alcove with him.

The soldier gripped his rifle tightly as he scanned the area and found nothing at all. Surely it hadn't moved, they'd have seen it. Still, even as the centrifuge glided past again and briefly illuminated the alcove, he still couldn't see it. Maybe it had run off.

He spared a glance upwards before focusing back on the centrifuge, these things could climb walls, so it was possible it had climbed over the safety zone wall and into another area, or it was still up there waiting for him to turn his back…Either way he couldn't see it, so it was best not to worry, or let his guard down, right now.

A few moments later Zaeed joined him, and a minute later so to did Mordin. "Okay, no elevator here either…Damn it, lets hope we find one soon…" There was only a couple of these spots left, if they didn't find an elevator soon, they'd either have to risk shutting down the centrifuge again, or try to find another way out.

Jacob spared a glance towards his Omni-tool, and inwardly cringed as he noted the air supply in his rebreather was running dangerously low. "Were not going to be leaving here." He finished his earlier statement with a shake of his head. Hell this situation just got better didn't it?

The centrifuge rolled past again, and Jacob broke into a sprint for the next alcove. This one had to have a damn elevator, it just had to. After all they didn't actually intend to trap the crew in here to die…Did they? Surely the ship wasn't designed that inhumanely.

Then again after everything he'd seen so far…

Jacob banished the thoughts and instead focused solely on putting one foot in front of the other. Just a couple more feet to go.

Just before he reached the gap however. One of the necromorphs. A strange thing with a blade like tail instead of legs, made its presence known by leaping out of the shadows and slamming into the soldier.

A startled yelp was swiftly cut short as it slammed him into the deck and knocked the air from his lungs.

One hand instinctively snapped up to defend his face as the creature tried to take a bite out of him. Though this in turn meant he couldn't bring his rifle to bear. And out of the corner of his eye he could see the centrifuge rapidly approaching. It was going to get them both killed if he couldn't shake it off in the next couple of seconds…

* * *

"Please tell me you're joking…" Shepard said quietly, her eyes glued to the screen Tali had been examining.

"With all due respect commander. I'm not going to lie to make you feel better." The mechanist replied, her voice holding a noticeable shake as she continued tapping away at the keys. "These scans aren't wrong."

The commander gulped. "Just once I'd like you to be wrong." She mumbled, before keying her comm. and moving a hand to her ear. "Once the ADS is back online, I want everyone on the bridge ASAP. Looks like we've got another problem to deal with."

She shook her head as she turned away from the screen. Tali had apparently been able to access the ship security systems. And the scan that had resulted was less then pleasing.

If it was correct, then there was something  _massive_  on the lower levels. Something that was both massive, and alive. Taking up almost an entire deck on its own. And given the size of the individual decks, that was saying something.

Shepard really didn't want to think about that now however. Her biggest concern was ensuring the ships safety. Then they could worry about the unknown creature that was lurking aboard the ship.

Damn she really hoped the Normandy hadn't been infected by, whatever the hell these things were.

"Any luck Hammond?" She swiftly spun around to face the security officer as he toyed with the terminal. The sooner they got the defences back online the better.

"Not yet, systems starting to come online, but it'll still be a few minutes." Another shudder rocked the ship.

"Warning: Hull integrity critical!" The ships VI warned them. And Melina sighed heavily.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't take to much longer…" The ship wouldn't hold out much longer at this rate. But what else could they do? None of them could pilot the ship. Joker maybe, but he wasn't here. And judging by how many computers there were scattered about the bridge she doubted one person alone would be able to control it.

A more violent jolt swept through the ship. And everyone was forced to grab a computer to stop from being knocked to the ground. "Okay, that was to close…"

"Warning: Hull breach in medical." Great, this just got better and better. Melina spared a brief glance out of the view screen at the front of the bridge. How the hell had they missed a damn asteroid field anyway? She didn't recall hearing anything about it during the approach and docking.

She shook her head, that wasn't important right now. "Can you get the systems back online or not?" She demanded, her gaze returning to Hammond as he finished toying with the terminal.

"It'll be back online in a minute or two at most. It's automated from this point." Shepard nodded slightly, finally some good news! Though in that minute or two they could get smashed apart. So it still didn't put her mind at ease.

Sure enough the ship shuddered again, and a loud bang reverberated through the bridge as a asteroid struck the hull close by. "Damn it, were not going to last a minute at this rate!" Hammond snapped as he slammed a fist into the console. It certainly didn't help, but hell; Shepard would have done the same, so she had no reason to argue.

"It'll hold. Or we won't be around long enough to know the difference." Miranda pitched in, and despite herself Melina threw her second in command a venomous glare for a moment, before focusing back on the ADS terminal. 75% just a bit more…

The asteroid impacts were growing less frequent now. Obviously a sign that cannons were coming back online, though there were still parts of the ship that were defenceless.

Which was proven a moment later as a shower of sparks, and the screeching of tortured metal caused everyone on the bridge to wince.

A moment later a deafening crash shocked the deck and resulted in everyone being sent crashing to the deck.

* * *

Jacob spared a quick glance towards the centrifuge, and noted with a wince that it was very quickly closing in on him. He couldn't get enough leverage to throw the creature off either. Which meant if he was going to die in a couple of seconds if he didn't find some way out of this.

As the necromorph made another attempt to bite him, he smashed his fist into its jaw, which disoriented it, but didn't loosen it's hold on him.

Damn it, this wasn't how he wanted to go. But there were worse ways to die. He just couldn't think of them right now.

Already the lights on the centrifuge were starting to draw close, and he could both feel and see the necromorph struggling to break his guard and finish the job. Either so it could claim his life rather then let the machine do it. Or some part of it wasn't quite ready to go down with him.

Just before it could win the struggle however. Something slammed into its side. A blur of motion that, before Jacob could even register was there, had knocked the monster off him, hauled him to his feet, and dragged the stunned solider into the alcove a split second before the centrifuge smashed all three of them to bits.

Behind him, the necromorph was in fact smashed into pulp. Zaeed on the other hand had somehow pulled them to safety just before they joined it. "That's twice I've saved you're neck…Lets not make a habit of it." The mercenary commented with a slight grin as he spared a glance over the Cerberus agents shoulder to ensure nothing was following them.

"At the rate were going. I'll be paying you back in full soon enough." The soldier replied, his words rushed and stuttered as he fought to catch his breath. The shock of just how close he'd come to getting killed having started to set in.

Zaeed nodded slightly as he watched the centrifuge pass by again. "I don't doubt it mate. I don't doubt it…" A few moments later Mordin joined them. And Jacob inwardly cursed when he noted the doctor was panting slightly. Damn it, they couldn't keep this up forever.

"There's only one alcove left. It has to have the elevator, otherwise were screwed." The soldier commented as he briefly risked a glance towards it. Sure enough there was more necromorphs hiding in the shadows, just waiting for them. "This isn't going to end well…"

"We haven't got a choice. I got, three minutes at best in my air supply." Zaeed growled as he checked his Omni-tool. "We go now or suffocate out here." The Cerberus agent nodded slightly.

"Right, then lets get going."

* * *

"Urgh…Everyone okay?" Shepard groaned as she pulled herself upright using the now ruined and sparking terminal. Luckily her armour protected her from the electricity that threatened to arc into her fingers.

"I, think so, commander." Miranda responded after a moment, her words slightly slurred as she shook off the headache the sudden impact with the floor had caused. "What happened?"

"Asteroid struck the bridge. Caused a breach too. Good thing you all had breather units on." Hammond explained, his right arm now pressed to his chest, while the left supported it. "The ADS is back online. We should be fine now."

Melina nodded slightly as she wiped a trail of blood from her face and sighed. "Thank god for that. Don't think we could take another hit." Pushing off from the terminal, she teetered for a moment, before steadying herself and slowly turning around to face the group. Tali looked shaken but unharmed, though how much was hidden behind her suit she couldn't say.

Miranda was sporting a few cuts and bruises, nothing major. Hammond though appeared to have broken his arm, probably form trying to stop himself from hitting the deck.

Shepard had a headache, but was no worse for wear thankfully. "Alright…" She pressed two fingers to her ear. "Garrus. ADS is back online, you three can come back up and meet us on the bridge."

"Got it. On our way now."

"What now? We've got the cannons online what's our next priority?" Miranda asked as she swiftly closed the relatively small gap between them and joined Shepard and Hammond.

"Well, Tali located something on one of the lower levels. Something massive." She spared a glance towards Tali as she joined the trio.

"I don't know exactly what It was…But it was massive, and according to the ship scans, it took up almost the entire food storage deck alone. Only a few smaller chambers haven't been consumed as of yet…"

Shepard nodded slightly before continuing, she ensured to leave her comm. on so Garrus and his squad would hear as well. "That thing is no doubt dangerous. And I say we have to at least investigate it. The last thing we need is it getting back into alliance space. Or worse, reaching the citadel…"

Hammond spared her a confused glance. But wisely kept his mouth shut for now. "Aside from that, I suppose finding a means of…Dealing with this infection, whatever it is. And ensuring it doesn't get off the ship should be our priority from here."

"Agreed. But how exactly are we going to do that? Short of annihilating the Ishimura?" Melina's gaze shifted to Hammond as he spoke, she could sense the reluctance at that idea edging his words. This would be a problem.

"If we have to blow it, we'll overload the reactors or something." Miranda pitched in.

"The Ishimura is to important to simply destroy. We should find a means of sterilizing it. Rather then simply destroying it. Especially after everything you're squad just did to save it." The commander frowned at this, there was definitely something Hammond wasn't telling them.

Before she could say anything however. Miranda jumped into the conversation. "Why the sudden defensiveness, chief? She crossed her arms, and Shepard mentally sighed as she noted the scowl beginning to form. "What's so important that you can't disk losing the ship? Care to explain?"

Before the security officer could say anything. A loud howl echoed across the bridge, and pulled all eyes towards the door.

Sure enough, another of the lanky necromorphs had stumbled across them. And as it flexed its claws, more began to trickle in behind it. First three, then a dozen. Soon twenty of the things had filed into the room. Ranging from slashers, to a divider or two. And even a few the crew hadn't encountered yet.

"Lets discuses that later!" Hammond snapped as he raised his rifle, the rest of the squad swiftly did the same as the creatures began to advance.

* * *

"Exiting Zero Gravity." The VI announced calmly, and Jacob breathed a much earned sigh of relief as he shut his failing rebreather unit off. The first thing he was greeted by was a lungful of the tangy, blood filled air that permeated the ship. Much to his noses protest, but he would just have to live with it.

It had taken at least two minutes after the incident with the necromorph. But they'd finally found the elevator and made it back out of the centrifuge death trap. All three of them were shaken by the narrow misses and the near suffocation due to running out of oxygen in their breathers. But none were worse for wear.

Clicking his comm. on. Jacob decided to for go trying to contact their seemingly absent minded handler, and instead switched channels. "Miranda. We've got the ship's orbit stabilized. Where are you?"

A burst of gunfire filled the comm., shouting swiftly followed, though soon after the Cerberus agent's voice replied. "Were on the bridge. Pinned down by more of those things! Damn it there's to many, don't know how long we can hold…If you can-" A burst of static caused him to wince, an explosion swiftly followed, likely a grenade or the like. "-Bridge!" A second later the comm. cut off, and the trio waited patiently for Miranda to return.

A minute passed in silence. Before they set off at a jog. "We'll have to find a way to the bridge. If Miranda say's their in trouble, then it must be bad." Jacob commented as he activated his comm. once again. There was only one person that would be able to guide them to the bridge. Not that he was keen on contacting her again, but he didn't have much other choice…

* * *

Indeed, things weren't going well on the bridge.

Shepard threw a second grenade, before shouldering her rifle and resuming the barrage. The necromorphs reminded her of husks at this point. Rushing blindly into their guns, only to fall and be replaced by another wave of their fellows that trampled the first group underfoot, or fell on top of them as they struggled to reach the squad.

Sadly this wasn't like those times for various reasons. For one, husks didn't come in all shapes and sizes, and have different talents for wasting ammunition or time shooting. Another was that husks didn't tend to get up and start charging a second time after you put them down.

As Shepard paused to reload again, she cringed as another wave of the creatures came rushing into sight and joined the fray. Several of them leapt onto the walls and bounced from terminals as they closed the gap. Others were small and hid behind their bigger cousins, using them as meat shields to gain every inch they could.

Still more simply exploded upon being shot, causing disorientation and confusion. And thus allowing more to get in close.

Melina's armour now sported several new scrapes from the fighting where one or two had reached her and landed a blow, before a well aimed shotgun blast from Tali or burst of assault rifle fire from Hammond had finished the job.

Miranda wasn't holding back either. As was proven by two of the creatures being enveloped in a blue aura, and being tossed back into their compaions like ragdolls. This resulting in more of them being slowed and buying more time for the squad to react.

It wasn't working for long however. These things just wouldn't quit, and slowly, the four brave soldiers were being pushed back. Inch by inch towards the opposite end of the bridge. That wouldn't have been so bad, if not for the knowledge that once they were out of room. There would be nowhere else to fall back too.

"We have to do, something. And soon, otherwise were going to get slaughtered!" Shepard growled as yet another thermal clip clattered to the deck and was replaced. "I only have about three clips left!"

"I'm not much better. And I can't keep the biotics up much longer, either." Miranda panted, her voice noticeably strained as she tossed another necromorph into the wall, the sickening crack of it's spine being lost amidst the gunfire and howls from the monsters.

Garrus would be here soon, though what good would three more guns do against this mess? Shepard didn't want to think about it. And partly hoped the squad wouldn't join in. After all they'd lost the elevator already, if they came out now they'd land right in the middle of the horde and probably get slaughtered before the doors even opened.

No, right now they were on their own. And that wasn't a reassuring thought. "We have to do something, and fast. Or we'll just run out of bullets and get swarmed!"

"I'm open to suggestions!" Shepard snapped after a few moments of awkward silence. No one bothered to speak. After all they were in a rather hopeless situation.

"Just keep fighting, there can't be that many more." Hammond finally said Sure enough, the commander noted there didn't appear to be anymore rushing the bridge. Maybe they had gotten lucky.

Again, Shepard stopped to reload, her gaze shifting away from the fight just long enough to lock the new clip into place. As she snapped back up, she was grateful to notice several more necromorphs had fallen under the barrage from her allies.

"Just a few more…We can do this!" Hammond called out as he to stopped to reload. There was something bothering Melina however, if they had this many to throw at them. Why had they stopped. And why did there seem to be fewer, but no bodies?

They were retreating…Why?

Finally, with the loud boom of a shotgun blast. The final slasher collapsed and silence greeted the squad. "Something's not right about this…" Miranda said, her words broken up by pants a she caught her breath. That fight had taken a lot out of her.

It had taken a lot out of all of them. Though Shepard pushed that from her mind as she scanned the bridge. Bullet holes, blood stains, corpses. It was a mess. But at least they were still alive.

"On the elevator now. Should be there in a minute commander." Garrus announced his presence, and sure enough she heard the doors open mere seconds later.

As the trio joined the current squad. Melina felt her unease at the sudden retreating monsters fade away. Clearly they'd just figured out they were outmatched and run.

Pushing the thought aside, the commander breathed a sigh of relief as she noted Garrus, Thane and Jack didn't look any worse for wear. That was a good sign.

"Good to see everyone's okay." Shepard offered a slight smile as she spared each person a glance. "Sadly our work isn't done yet."

"Why am I not surprised to hear that?" Jack sighed as she hefted her shotgun. "What do we kill next?"

* * *

Silence greeted Issac as he carefully crept towards the destroyed bridge door. That didn't bode well for him. The engineer had been hearing gunfire and shouting. But the closer he got to the bridge, the quieter everything became.

Despite wanting to help, he'd ensured to remain as quiet as possible. And in turn had slowed to almost a crawl as he waited for the inevitable ambush. Strangely though, even with the necromorphs having retreated. He never ran into one, instead Isaac made it to the bridge without interruption.

Peering around the door, he was surprised to see a lot of destruction. Blood and gore everywhere, coupled with plenty of weapon damage. Gripping the two plasma cutters he carried tightly, he carefully stepped onto the bridge.

As he picked his way through the destruction. He felt a small measure of hope as a mix of voices began to reach his ears. A low murmur at first, but it slowly began to grow louder and clearer as he drew closer to the source.

"-Can't say for sure. The scans didn't reveal much other then it was organic." Isaac halted for a moment as he reconized the accented voice. Tali!

"Whatever it is. It's taken over that deck. And I don't trust it to leave us alone." Another woman spoke next, a voice he didn't know. Finally summoning the courage, he finished picking his way through the corpses and swept around the elevator to face the group.

Almost instantly he regretted it. As the first thing he ran into was undoubtedly an alien. The, thing, was dressed in thick blue armour that was scorched in places, the damage looked old, but the lack of repair kept the scar as a painful reminder as to the damage done to the suit, and no doubt the person wearing it.

Before he could react, the alien brought what was unmistakable an assault rifle up to it's shoulder and lined up with the engineers head. Who instinctively snapped his cutters up in response.

Out of the corners of his eyes, He spotted Tali, Hammond, and another handful of people he didn't know turning to face them. "What the hell?" The alien confronting him finally spoke. And Isaac tensed further, the voice just sounded so damn strange. Admittedly Tali had an accent, but this thing just sounded strange.

"Isaac? I though you said he was dead." Hammond commented, as he stepped forward and attempted to wave Garrus away. Though naturally he didn't react, if anything he simply tightened his grip on the weapon.

"H-He was! I saw it myself!" Tali stammered, her shotgun coming to bear on Isaac as well.

This was not looking good…


	18. Chapter Eighteen

"H-He was! I saw it myself!" Tali stammered, her shotgun coming to bear on Isaac as well. "This, this is some sort of trick or something. It has to be." She wasn't entirely sure anymore. After all she'd seen the engineer; he was one of those things. She'd shot him herself! Keelah it had reacted when she'd said his name, so it had to be!

But now that she was standing here, facing a now unmistakably human Isaac, and in turn he was aiming a gun back at her. She wasn't sure what to think anymore. Was he dead, or was this some sort of trick, a means to confuse the squad and make them easier pray? After that failed attack on the bridge, maybe this was their new strategy…

"I wouldn't be standing here if I was dead, would I?" Isaac asked calmly, his cutters not faltering as he met Garrus' gaze. He wouldn't be the first to shoot, but he certainly wasn't going to be the first to back down either.

Before anyone could respond, Shepard swiftly stepped forward and put herself between the two. "Stand down Garrus." She stated calmly, her eyes snapped to the turian for only a moment, before he lowered his rifle. A moment later she shifted her focus to the engineer. Tali, knowing better then to argue, lowered her weapon as well.

Seeing the fight was, postponed at least. Isaac did the same. "Forgive the, cold welcome. But we've been a little on edge given all that's happened today." Shepard explained, before offering an apologetic look to both of her squad members. "I can't blame them for being a little on edge."

"It's fine…I saw the necromorph's corpse." Isaac shrugged slightly as he clipped the second cutter back onto his belt. "Damn thing wore the same rig as me. Would have been an easy mistake, given what we've seen so far."

Tali shook her head slightly. "What we've seen?" She repeated, a slight hint of disbelief edging her tone. "This whole ship is a nightmare! Why didn't you just destroy it in the first place is beyond me."

Isaac instantly discovered why he'd heard the squad long before reaching them. "As I stated before. Our ship was damaged, and swiftly wrecked within an hour of our arrival. We can't destroy the ship while were still aboard!" Hammond responded, his voice carrying a slight edge of its own. Though he sounded more, tired, as though he'd stated this so many times before, and by the seems of it, he had. "Besides, our orders were to answer the distress beacon and get the ship repaired. And until further notice that order still stands."

Shepard moved to respond, however Garrus was quicker to the punch. "So you're just going to blindly follow orders and get killed? Is that it!" He waved a talon in a attempt to draw attention to the carnage around them. "Take a look around you Hammond! These, these monsters have killed the crew, overrun the ship! We can't hope to take them all out alone! There are only fifteen of us at best. Against spirits know how many of those things! How do you expect us to take back the ship with those odds?"

"I never said I liked my orders! But this ship is to important to lose.' Hammond snapped, his patience with all the questions having finally ran out. "Much as I'd prefer to just blow the ship up and abandon it. That isn't an option!"

"Why isn't it an option?" Why is this ship so damned important that you're willing to risk life and limb to preserve it?" Miranda chose now to join the conversation, suspicion lacing every word as she crossed her arms. "All you've mentioned about the Ishimura so far is that it' s mining vessel…A," She paused to search for the right word. "Planet cracker. What does that even mean?"

"We can talk about this later!" Shepard snapped, her gaze shifting back and forth between Miranda and Hammond. "I don't like this situation anymore then you do. But right now we don't have any other choice. With our comms not working fully yet and the Normandy out of contact. Were in the same boat. So lets NOT fight amongst ourselves and focus instead on the current situation. Namely getting communications back online."

"We also need to worry about that…Thing on the hydroponics deck." Tali pitched in, she knew they hadn't forgotten, but she was ensuring everyone knew they had more then one objective right now.

"Let's hope that things friendly." Shepard commented with a sigh. She knew that wasn't going to be the case. Given nothing else aboard had been, but she was nothing if not a little optimistic. Maybe the, thing wasn't even aboard anymore and they'd just end up wasting time by checking it out. Maybe it was harmless. Yeah that wouldn't happen, but she could hope, couldn't she?

"Considering our track record…I doubt it." Garrus commented with a smirk. Despite the less then pleasant situation, and the tension between squad members, Shepard wasn't the only one that chuckled at the poor joke.

* * *

"There's a tram just up ahead. That'll take you to wherever you want, or need to go." Jacob nodded slightly and made a slight gesture to Zaeed and Mordin to indicate they were still on the right track.

"Got it." He responded, before switching the comm. off. He wasn't sure why exactly, but he didn't fully trust Kendra, probably something to do with the fact she was more or less hiding and leaving them to do all the work. Everyone aboard the Normandy, regardless of skill would join the fight if needed.

He swiftly banished the thought though and instead focused on reaching the tram. It wasn't his place to judge. And after seeing the kind of creatures they were up against, he certainly couldn't blame her for wanting to be as far away from the action as possible.

"You sure we can trust her? So far she's been leading us into the bloody jaws of death." Zaeed broke the brief silence first. Out of the three, he'd been the only one to openly state his dislike of working with Kendra so far. He wasn't one for trusting people easily. And considering what they'd gone through while following her orders. It wasn't surprising.

"We don't have a lot of choice right now. We know nothing about the layout of the ship. She has access to the main computer core." Or so she claimed anyway. "For now we just have to trust her."

"You better know what you're doing…" They were cut short as the comm. came to life once again, though it wasn't the woman they had expected.

"Jacob, Zaeed, Mordin. You three still out there?" Jacob couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as he spared a glance towards the other two squad members; the last person they'd expected was Shepard to call them.

"Commander? Good to hear you're still with us. Were about to board the tram and head back to you. How's the bridge situation?" He paused as they reached the station, naturally the tram wasn't present.

How did you call that thing anyway? He spared a glance about the small station. Aside from what appeared to be a few benches for people waiting for it, their was no call button, terminal or anything.

"The, necromorphs-" Jacob frowned when Shepard's voice briefly cut out, though over the static he could just make out her talking with someone else for a moment. "-Seriously, that's what you call them? Not what I'd have picked…- Retreated for some reason. Were safe for the moment, but the lockdown hasn't lifted. Their still about but for now were safe and sound. Were discussing the next course of action. Looks like we've got a long night ahead of us."

The soldier offered a laugh at this. "Since when has our job ever been easy? We got the fuel pumps working and the centrifuge back online. What's next?"

* * *

Shepard spared a brief glance about the bridge, during the argument and confusion, she hadn't noticed initially that the lights were still on hazard yellow and the quarantine systems hadn't lifted. Not that it mattered considering the main door was in two or three pieces on the floor right now.

"Now that I have everyone listening." She cleared her throat, before focusing on the squad members she could actually see. "Tali has located something on one of the upper decks. Hydroponics to be exact. Something massive. We don't know what, or what kind of threat it is. But someone needs to head up there and have a look, and probably kill it."

"Long range communications is also offline. Someone's going to have to deal with that as well…Tali, I think that's you're department. Isaac, you're an engineer…" The human nodded slightly.

"I'm afraid there's one other problem, commander." Shepard winced as an unfamiliar voice saw fit to not only access their comm. channel, but also intrude on the briefing.

"Who are you? And what are you doing on our comm. channel? This is a secured frequency."

"Sorry to interrupt. The names Kendra, Kendra Daniels, I've been helping a few members of you're team, and Isaac fix up elements of the ship. I have access to the computer core from here and through it I have access to a lot of data you don't." Shepard crossed her arms as she listened to the woman more or less boast about her position.

"Alright, and what's this *problem* you can't fix by yourself?"

"According to the scans of the hydroponics and foot storage decks…Something is poisoning the area. And through it, the rest of the ship" Shepard inwardly groaned at the news.

"Any ideas what? And how we can stop it?: She noted out of the corner of her eye that Hammond was listening intently, an uneasy frown darkening his expression. Something told her he knew Kendra, and something also told her they weren't exactly friends. But that was just a hunch. She had more important things to worry about however.

"Chances are it's either something to do with the creature on that deck. Or something else. A toxin introduced into the air filtration system maybe…I can't say for sure. But going up there without proper equipment would be suicide at best. Even with a rig like Isaac's. The air levels are too contaminated for you to survive. You'd have to restore the air quality, and fast or die trying."

"Okay…What can you tell us about the communications blackout?" Shepard barely detected a odd pause, no sound at all coming through the comms. Despite herself she felt a stab of unease. Surely if she was checking a terminal she'd hear the tapping of keys or something?

"Not sure, the comm. tower isn't showing up on the network. Something must have taken it down during the early infection…Maybe the crew shut it down to avoid another ship falling into the trap…Shame it didn't work." Melian sighed heavily, great, more complications.

"Whoever's going will have to head across the outside of the ship. What information I can get shows the main access corridors have been either sealed, or destroyed somehow. Probably during the asteroid onslaught. There's a path you can take, from the bridge. It's a short walk but the ADS cannons aren't active in that area for some reason. It could be dangerous…"

"I'll go, Shepard." The commanders gaze shifted to Tali as she cut in, upon meeting her gaze the quarian shifted uneasily. 'You'll need someone with technical skills to fix it."

"With all due respect, I know the ship and systems better. I'll do it." Isaac pitched in. "Besides my rigs designed for going out into the vacuum."

Shepard swiftly raised a hand as Tali moved to argue. "You can both go! Who knows what's wrong, you might need an extra pair of hands to fix it…Thane, can I trust you to back them up?"

The drell nodded slightly, somehow he'd gone largely unnoticed during the whole conversation, he had a knack for doing that Shepard noted. "Of course. I wouldn't be able to fix the systems, but I can ensure their safety."

"Right, you three head for the access tunnel, the rest of us will take hydroponics and deal with whatever's poisoning the air supply." With a nod, the trio set off, Kendra was silent for the time being as she offered directions to the airlock, while the rest of the squad set off towards the main door. "We'll take the tram and meet up with Jacobs team. Something tells me we'll need Mordin's expertise when we deal with the toxins.

"Commander, suggestion if I may. Creature we plan to face. Massive. Dangerous likely. Perhaps with proper equipment I could make something capable of weakening. Perhaps even killing the creature. Need equipment, lab maybe and time however." Shepard paused for a few moments as Mordin spoke up. They were pressed for time, but if he could think of an easier way…

"There's a chem lab on the medical deck…" Kendra offered before Melina could respond.

"Not sure, might not have what I need…Could work however. Won't know until I see lab."

"Great…Alright, Mordin…" She spared a glance over the squad with her. "Miranda, and Hammond, can I trust you two to go with him and keep the doctor safe while he works?" Both ndded, the latter somewhat reluctantly though both agreed none the less. "Okay, that leaves me, Garrus, Jacob and Zaeed. We'll take hydroponics and try to deal with whatever's damaging the air; hopefully we can at least stall it before it spreads to the rest of the ship…"

* * *

Kasumi wasn't sure how long it had been. However the one thing she was aware of was that the metal deck she remembered beneath her upon losing consciousness was now surprisingly soft and comfortable. No doubt she'd been moved at some point, which was lucky. After all if she'd actually been dragged into space as she'd feared, then she wouldn't be waking up at all. Let alone on what was undoubtedly a bed.

Forcing her eyes open, she had expected harsh, blinding light. And was instead greeted by almost complete darkness, a few lights flickered on and off on what she assumed were terminals or some form of equipment. But the main lights were quite dull.

A hand instinctively moved to her face to push her hood back slightly, though this did little to change her situation. Wherever she was, the lights had been cut for some reason.

Where was she anyway? It didn't look like her quarters…Obviously it was the med bay. After all she was in pretty bad shape when she'd blacked out. But where was the doctor?

Pushing herself upright, she spared a glance about the darkened medical room. The room itself was deserted save for her. And she noted the door to the AI core was locked tight, likely due to Legion undergoing repairs, or a safety measure considering the incident earlier.

Or the incident now, as the case may be.

Kasumi shook the thought from her head and favoured instead to slide off the bed and onto her feet. Thankfully her limbs weren't to badly numb and she didn't end up collapsing under her own weight.

A quick roll of her shoulders confirmed her arm was fixed. Which only further cemented the fact that she had not only been moved to the med bay. But she'd been out for quite some time.

A hand instinctively dipped to her pistol, which she remembered a moment later had been ruined. A quick check confirmed all her guns were missing. And a scan of the room confirmed they weren't within reach, or sight. Chances are they'd either been lost, or stored elsewhere.

Of course, why would the doctor have, or keep weapons store in medical?

She pushed the thought aside, the Normandy was secured, okay the power might have been out by the looks of it but maybe the ship had sustained some damage and they were fixing it.

The thief paused and tuned out even the slightest sound for a moment. Normally if she did so she could pick up on the quiet rumble of the reactor or the thrum of the engines. Right now she heard neither. The ship was completely silent. "That's not good…" Repairs or no, surely something would still be running."

A chill swept through Kasumi as she tapped the command to open the med bay door. As it opened she noted the mess hall beyond was darkened as well. "Where is everyone?" She commented, before setting off towards the elevator. Normally their was a few crew members lingering down here regardless of the hour…

The dread began to intensify as she pressed the call elevator button and waited for it to descend from whatever floor it was currently on. Maybe someone up on the CIC deck would know what the problem was.

A loud clattering sound caused Kasumi to whip around, eyes narrowing as she scanned the mess hall once again. Despite her keen eyesight however, the dim lighting concealed whatever had caused the sound.

"Creepy, just doesn't cut it." She muttered, before turning her attention back to the elevator. Just in time for the doors to open with a groan of protest.

Only now was she granted the blinding light she'd expected upon waking. As apparently the elevator still had plenty of power. A hand jumped up to protect her eyes until they adjusted. Before she examined the interior.

The dread she'd felt upon waking to a darkened med bay lessened somewhat as she stepped into the unchanged elevator. "You're overreacting…Letting that near death fray you're nerves!" She whispered under her breath as a means of reassuring herself. Before pressing the button for the CIC deck. Once she ran into a few of the crew, it would confirm nothing was wrong and she'd retire to her quarters until they were needed once again. Hell maybe she'd make use of that bar…

As the doors slid closed however, she noted a shape move slightly in the low light, a shape that appeared to have blade like hands. The doors snapped shut before she could blink however. And Kasumi swiftly pushed the thought from her head. The ship was secured, it had to be. They'd made damn sure of that. "Maybe I'll skip the drink…"


	19. Chapter Ninteen

It had taken a full half an hour to reach the tram and drop the teams at their respective decks. Though in that short time little had actually happened. Mordin was busy trying to think up a possible poison to stop the creature should it actually turn out hostile, though even he admitted the chances of it working were slim given he didn't know what he was making a poison for.

The rest of the squad were silent during the tram ride, and few words were exchanged even after they'd dropped half the squad on the medical deck and continued onwards.

"Make sure you're helmets are sealed, last thing we needs to choke to death on whatever contaminate is flooding the deck." Shepard finally broke the silence as she finished making adjustments to her own helmet, the visor swiftly lit up to indicate it was sealed and warned her she didn't have a lot of oxygen left in reserve. "Ten minutes at best…Hell." She mumbled under her breath, a quick glance about the tram revealed the others were in much the same situation, narrowed eyes, whispered curses and grim expressions met her own.

Ordinarily they'd have had the chance to restock, but they had no means of tapping into the ships filtration systems, and with the poison possibly flooding other decks, she wasn't sure that was a smart idea to try in the first place. She didn't bother mentioning this to the rest of the squad however; they had to focus on what was ahead, not the risks. Hell they'd been through worse then risk of getting sick by unclean air.

A quick glance towards the terminal revealed they were almost at their destination. A moment later Melina pressed two fingers to the side of her helmet and activated her comm. "Any ideas what were looking for Kendra?" She asked quietly, her gaze shifting to the windows as she watched random levels of the ship flash past in a dizzying blur.

"Not exactly…The toxin appears to be coming from several different locations across the deck…However I can't pin down the source, most of the security systems are offline." Shepard barely resisted sighing at the news, why was there always something that hampered them? It seemed almost common place since they came aboard. Always something blocking their path or slowing them down.

"Alright, guess we'll just have to figure it out once we get there." The commander said quietly, before clicking her comm. off and focusing on the rest of the squad. All of them looked ready, weapons were loaded and suits were secured. Though she had to admit she was worried about their ammunition supply. None of them were that well off and Hammond hadn't been given a chance to tell them where the armoury was, or at least where to find weapons of some description.

Oh well, they'll just have to improvise.

* * *

The medical deck was as quiet as the grave as Miranda, Mordin, and Hammond stepped off the tram and set off into the ship. None of them dared to speak, favouring instead to check their weapons, before heading in the direction of the chem. Labs.

"Any idea where exactly where going? You obviously know this ship better then us." Miranda finally asked, gaze snapping around to focus on Hammond as he led the way through the ship. She still didn't entirely trust him, not fully. However for the sake of their well being, and the mission, she was willing to ignore the constant secrecy. For now at least.

"I have schematics of the various decks. Provided nothing has damaged the ships interior I can get us there." He responded calmly. As if to empathize this he made a slight gesture and a holographic map of the medical deck flickered into being a foot in front of him. Much like Isaac, he had holoprojectors built into his rig.

"Chem lab is on the other side of the deck." He highlighted the area with a tap of his finger, before tracing a path from where they were to the labs. "If we follow this hallway, cut through cryo bay. Should only take us ten minutes at most." He noted out of the corner of his eye Miranda frowning in confusion. Though at this point he wasn't surprised.

"Cryo bay...Given time, would like to study, sounds…Interesting." Mordin spoke up at last, and swiftly quelled the unease between his compaions, albeit unknowingly.

"Well, maybe you can have a look once we get these necromorphs off the ship." Hammond shrugged slightly; he was confident that, once the beacon Isaac had deployed was picked up, more then just the Normandy crew would arrive and help purge the ship. Or at least confirm that it was a lost cause and get them off before turning it into molten slag.

* * *

Much like the rest of the squad, Tali, Isaac, and Thane had all lapsed into an uneasy silence as well. The quarian was still unnerved by the sudden appearance of the human. The engineer wasn't to keen on trying to say anything for fear of making the tension worse. And Thane, well he rarely said anything so that wasn't surprising.

Several minutes passed like this. And it wasn't until they reached the airlock and began checking their suits were sealed did Isaac finally break the silence. "Here," He swiftly unclipped the second plasma cutter from his belt and offered it to Tali grip first. "think you dropped this back on the tram."

The machinist hesitated for a moment, before offering a quiet thanks and accepting the weapon. "Thought I'd lost it for good…" Was the best response she could muster, Isaac simply smiled behind his helmet.

"Warning, entering zero gravity." The ships automated systems warned as the airlock cycled and the oxygen was sucked out of the room, along with all sound save the muffled breathing inside their helmets.

Knowing they wouldn't hear him unless he used the radio, Isaac made a slight gesture with one hand, before leading the way through the newly opened airlock and into the cold embrace of space.

Thankfully both Tali and Thane had the same stabilizers that ensured they could walk without difficulty. So the only thing they had to worry about was keeping at least one foot on the deck at all times.

"Okay, take it nice and slow. We don't know what's out here waiting for us." Isaac warned, before taking the first step out into the open vacuum, the area ahead was dark and obstructed by various sections of the ship. It was unnerving to say the least. They couldn't see more then a few feet ahead of them before a transformer or antenna obscured their vision. "Hell…Eyes sharp." The engineer said quietly as he moved forward and pressed his back to the first obstacle.

A moment later the rest of the squad joined him and Isaac carefully peered around the edge of the antenna. Nothing moved, and naturally aside from his own heavy breathing, he couldn't hear anything either.

"Looks clear…Figured there'd be-Hell!" As Kendra had warned, the ADS system was obviously offline to this part of the ship. Isaac barely ducked behind the antenna in time as an asteroid slammed into the deck, a sizeable chuck of which came dangerously close to where his head had been a second before.

"Okay…That complicates things a little…"

* * *

Shepard winced as she finished hacking the door and unlocked the entrance to the hydroponics deck. Almost instantly a sickening smell assaulted her nose, even through the air filtration systems her suit sported, it took all of her self control not to choke.

A moment later she switched over to the armours oxygen supply, before swiftly shouldering her rifle and leading the way down the corridor. "Use you're oxygen for now. We don't know how lethal this poison is." She commented quietly as she scanned the first hallway. Luckily it seemed nothing was lying in wait. Or if it was, it was good at hiding.

"Warning: Oxygen quality degrading." Shepard barely resisted rolling her eyes as the VI warned them about what they already knew. It was an automated message, likely to get people to safety. But it didn't make it any less annoying in her mind.

"We better find a way to purge the air and quick. None of us can risk breathing this crap in for long." Zaeed growled, before hefting his flamethrower and pushing past Melina. For a moment she considered objecting, but considering his choice in weapon, it was probably better not to stand in front of him…

Shaking the thought off, Shepard pressed her fingers to one ear and activated her comm.. 'Mordin? Any luck with the poison yet?"

* * *

"No, almost at labs however, will have news soon." The salarian replied. They'd made good progress so far, only running into one or two of the creatures, and had already reached the cryo bay. But there was still a long way to go, and a lot of possibilities between them and the chem. Lab.

Even then they didn't know what awaited them in the lab. No one mentioned this dark train of thought however. If that were the case, they'd deal with it when they reached it. For now, they had bigger things to worry about.

"Fascinating, technology much different to human regular human designs. Whole ship, different, new." Mordin paused for a few moments as he examined the cryo chamber. Hammond paused for a second as well, before making a slight gesture towards the door on the far side of the chamber.

"Come on, we need to get to the labs first. I'll give you a tour once the missions complete." The Salarian hesitated, before nodding.

"Yes, mission first, questions and exploration later."

"Alright," Hammond called up the map again and checked their location. "Cutting through the bay…We can get to the lab." Again he traced a path. "Just one more corridor, barring any obstructions it's a straight shot."

"Then lets keep moving, sooner we synthesise the poison, the sooner we can get to Shepard and deal with that thing." Miranda pitched in her cast idly shifting about the chamber. Something was bothering her, though she didn't voice it.

And of course, her suspicions were proven valid. "I'm afraid; I can't let you do that." All three of them whipped their weapons up as a unfamiliar voice cut into their conversations, both coming over what was presumably a loud speaker in the room, and their radios.

A second later several loud, deafening clangs signalled the doors slamming shut and locking. The holographic system on Hammond rig activated as well, and through the static a face none of them recognized formed. "Who the hell are you?" Miranda demanded before Hammond could speak up.

"That's not important right now." Mercer responded, eyes narrowing very slightly. "You're resistance is pointless, you're simply delaying the inevitable." Hammond felt his hands clench.

"'Inevitable'? You sound like you've given up…" He didn't know who the doctor was, but he had wasn't about to risk another survivor getting killed, or killing themselves. "If we can repair the ship enough, we stand a chance of taking it back!" It was rather far fetched, but he needed to say something to inspire confidence.

Doctor Mercer simply shook his head. "You misunderstand me…But no matter, you'll understand, soon enough." The comm. swiftly dissolved to static and the screen cut off a moment later.

"I…Don't like the sound of that." Hammond admitted as he studied the empty air where the screen had been. "Understand what…? What inevitable?"

Again, the answer came swiftly enough. As a loud clang signalled something slamming into the door they were intending to go through to get to the labs.

All three brought there weapons up as a second bang sounded, this time a subtle vibration docked the room. The third impact was so powerful that it almost knocked them off their feet. "Really, don't like the sound of that!"

* * *

Another asteroid struck the outside of the ship. And a moment later Isaac, Tali and Thane broke into a jog and darted to the next piece of cover. Sinking into a crouch behind the badly damaged transformer. Isaac did his best to ignore the sparks that lanced off it and threatened to burn through his armour. "Doing good, were almost there!" He called out, his voice weak as he gasped for breath.

They'd been pushing themselves to their limits to make it in-between the asteroids. But his rig was also running low on oxygen, and he was fresh out of secondary tanks. He was going to start choking to death soon if they didn't find a station or got to an airlock.

For now however he ignore the slight tightness in his chest that only grew worse with each breath and spared a glance towards the path ahead.

"Damn it…There's nothing left…" He cursed as he realized there was no cover, or objects they could use at least, left. No more transformers or relay towers. Just open ground and nothing to hide behind should an asteroid hit, they'd probably get knocked flying by the debris, or completely creamed by if hit dead on. "We haven't got a choice, we'll just have to make a run for it and hope for the best.

"Alright, one at a time, or all at once?" She finally asked, Isaac was silent for a long moment, before he seemed to nod slightly.

"All at once, who knows what's lurking around here, splitting up won't be advisable…Besides we don't know how long we have before another asteroid hits and completely cuts us off from the comm. center." He spared a glance towards the others; both offered a nod in return to confirm they'd heard him.

After checking to ensure no immediate danger was present, he stepped out first and set off towards the tower once again, Tali and Thane only a couple of steps behind.

* * *

"No word from Tali and Thane yet…Think something's wrong?" Garrus asked, as Shepard easily hacked open yet another door. For some reason the majority of the hydroponics deck was locked down. Maybe the crew had done it to lock whatever was here in. Considering they often used the vents though, it was a futile effort.

"They had to do a space walk. Probably taking longer then they thought." Her rifle came up to her shoulder as the doors parted. Almost instantly she cringed as the toxic air she'd been trying not to inhale assaulted her nose and made her choke, it was even worse then before. Even with the air filters the toxic air was forcing its way into her suit.

How long had they been down here anyway? She'd run out of fresh air and, reluctantly switched back to her filters. There was simply no other choice at this point. However the closer they got to the source of the polluted air, the harder it became to press on.

"Damn this is, sick." Shepard coughed as she inched forwards and surveyed the room.

Everywhere she looked were glass tanks filled with various plants. Some were withering and dying, no doubt due to the contaminated air. Others were still green and appeared to sway slightly in a nonexistent breeze.

"Why the hell do they need this kind of thing anyway?" Zaeed asked, one hand gesturing in general to the tanks.

"Maybe they can't get back to the Citadel regularly, have to grow their own food or something as a result." Garrus offered, a slight shrug accompanying his words as he too studied the tanks. "Though it makes you wonder what kind of work a *planet cracker* does, that they can't come back to Citadel space…"

"That's not important. Once this mission is over I'm holding Hammond, Isaac and this, Kendra to their promise of information. But for now lets just get the air quality restored before I end up losing my breakfast." Melina cut the chatter off entirely with this comment, both because no one found a reason to argue, and because they too were starting to suffer as well. "Keep you're eyes open for anything." Shepard finished as she clicked the safety off her rifle and began leading the squad between the tanks.

"Aside from the tainted air…This place isn't so bad." Jacob commented, and, indeed Melina couldn't find any reason to disagree. The plants added a certain, serenity to the whole area, despite the dim lighting (Only offset by the lights in the tanks themselves) and the air that burned her lungs, the place was pretty peaceful.

Which of course meant something was about to go horribly wrong. Shepard instinctively gripped her rifle harder as she began scanning the room more intently. She wasn't a pessimist. But this place was simply far to quiet for her liking.

"Keep you're eyes open…I get the feelings something's about-"A deafening crash cut Shepard off mid sentence. And as she and the rest of the squad whipped around to face the new threat, she shuffled back a step as glass skittered across the floor and threatened to puncture her armour.

The commander felt her blood run cold as she began inching back further. As the glass and plants that had been held within the tank was scattered. The brute that had ambushed them let forth a roar even louder then the shattering glass. The resulting easily cracking and breaking even more glass around them.

"Damn it! Shoot the blasted thing!" Shepard snapped, before shouldering her rifle and firing the first shot.

* * *

Another asteroid struck the deck, though thankfully Isaac and the others had already reached the other side and were waiting for the airlock to cycle. Isaac especially was grateful for this, as a quick glance at the counter on his suit indicated he had mere seconds before running dry.

"Exiting vacuum." The computer proclaimed. And despite himself the engineer swiftly inhaled a lungful of the air flooding the chamber.

"Glad to be back inside. However bad the ships condition is. It's better then dying from running out of oxygen." Both Tali and Thane nodded slightly, before readying their weapons. A moment later the door opened and they stepped out into the first hallway.

"All clear." Tali commented as she lowered her weapon just a touch, though kept it trained on the corridor ahead. Much like the rest of the ship it was darkened and gloomy, but it appeared empty, which only made the situation more unsettling.

With three distinct clicks, the squad's flashlights clicked on and they continued advancing. "The comm. center isn't far from here…lets just hope the equipment isn't damaged to badly." Isaac spoke as he led the trio towards the array they were supposed to fix. Though out of the corner of his eye he noted Tali lagging behind, and finally halting.

"Wait…What's, this?" Glancing over his shoulder, he noted she was staring at something on the wall. Shining his own flashlight over the area, he was about to roll his eyes when he spotted blood staining the wall.

However that notion swiftly died when he noted it wasn't a stain, but rather something had been written in blood along the wall.

The, runes he supposed they could be called, seemed to glow faintly in the low light of their flashlights. "What the…" As he scanned over them in a vain attempt to read the symbols. A chill whisper filled his ears, though the moment he looked away to find the source, they halted, silence once again gripped the corridor.

"Come on…I don't like this."

* * *

Things across the ship were going to hell it seemed. No sooner had Mercer locked them in the cryo bay. Then the necromorphs had come in full force. Dozens of them poured out of the vents. Ranging from the ones they'd encountered before. And odd creatures that vaguely resembled bats that seemed to hang back and avoid the battle, as though waiting for something.

Regardless of their choice to fight or not. The squad was quick to return all of them to their unloving states. Hammond's assault rifle easily ripped through anything that got within range. Miranda and Mordin's pistols too blasted sizeable chunks through each target.

That wasn't all they had at their disposal however. As was evident by one of the creatures being enveloped in a dull blue aura. A second later it was sent flying sideways into the wall with a sickening crack. It didn't get back up again.

"Nice one!" Hammond called out; he had no idea how the woman could do that. But hell if he was about to complain with her skills. Mordin on the other hand was busy cycling through the ammo types he had available. One moment a burst of pistol fire caused a necromorph to burst into flames. A moment later the shots were laced with ice and a few shots caused the creature to stiffen and freeze.

"We can't stay here forever. They'll overrun us soon!" Miranda shouted over the growls and gunfire. The room wasn't big enough for the creatures to bring superior numbers to bear. But they were pinned against a locked door with nowhere to go. And it looked like they'd run out of ammo before the necromorphs ran out of bodies to throw at them.

"I'm open to suggestions!" Hammond responded. If they could get the door open they could put some distance between them and the slavering monsters. But they were in a lockdown!

"Keep them busy!" Miranda responded as if reading his mind. With a violent shove she let forth a wave of the blue energy and sent the nearest necromorphs, and the corpses of others tumbling backwards away from them. Only a handful got back up. However more were already arriving.

One in particular, a small dog sized creature with tentacles bursting out of it's back screeched, before firing a trio of spikes at them. Somehow the biotic shifted to one side and avoided being struck. A second later Mordin put a bullet through it's skull and put it down for good.

Satisfied she had a couple of seconds. Miranda whipped around and activated her Omni-tool. Within moments she was linked into the security systems and was busy trying to break the lockdown.

She wasn't as skilled as Tali or Kasumi, but she could handle a simple locked door easily enough.

Hammond and Mordin didn't have time to watch however. Another wave of necromorphs were already on the offensive. The salarian's pistol and humans rifle kept them back, however with each monster that died, they fell one step closer to the trio. "Anytime you're ready Miranda!"

"This isn't a system I'm familiar with! If you want to take a shot at it then be my bloody guest!" The woman rolled her eyes before returning to the screen. Just a few more seconds…"Come on, come on…Just a moment longer."

Hammond paused to reload, and noted with unease that he was down to his last clip. Luckily if memory served there was a storage room nearby, they could raid it for ammo or at least money for the store once this was over…Provided they lived long enough that was.

"Got it!" Miranda called out, a relieved sigh following as she rose from her half crouch and redrew her pistol. The warning lights cut out and she heard the doors unlocking. A moment later it opened with a loud groan.

The biotic was about to call out to the others, when a shadow moved on the other side of the door. Out of instinct she lashed out with one hand, a bolt of biotic energy leaving her fingers and striking the towering shape in the chest.

That didn't even seem to phase it however. And a moment later it blurred into motion, much faster then she'd have anticipated. Before Miranda could act, the necromorph was only a step away. And one scythe blade like talon swept towards the woman.

Even with her shields, and reflexes, the creature moved to fast, and her shield didn't even stand a hope of stopping the blow. A second later she winced as a sickening crunch signalled the blade like appendage striking deep into her stomach.

Hammond, having heard her fighting, put a quick burst through the last necromorph in the room and spun around to help. Only to watch in horror as the creature tossed the now limp body aside, a second crack was heard as she slammed into the wall and collapsed to the deck.

"Miranda!" Hammond's gaze snapped back to the creature responsible. The massive hulk of a thing growled as it brought the bloodied blade to its lips and made a show of licking some of the blood off. A second later the hunter began to advance on the remaining two squad members.

Ordinarily, when faced with an opponent like this, in a small room like this. Hammond would have put as much space between them and it as possible. But he refused to back down until he was one hundred percent sure Miranda was well and truly dead. After that he was sure she was. But he wouldn't abandon her until he saw it for himself.

"Damn it…I hope you have a suggestion Mordin?" He spared a glance towards the scientist as they began inching backwards. The salarian simply shook his head, before bringing his pistol up and firing.

* * *

Shepard offered a colorful curse as the brute ripped a section of bulkhead out of the wall and threw it at them. Without pause she rolled to one side and narrowly avoided the chunk of metal. A quick glance confirmed the others had done so as well.

The commander honestly was NOT in the mood for tangling with this thing again. After being almost crushed by it last time (Provided it was the same creature and not just one that looked like it) she didn't fancy trying her lock a second time. However she wasn't about to run away from a fight either.

Bringing her rifle up, she fired a short burst at the beast. Sadly the armour plates along its arms deflected the rounds and she winced as a loud ping of a bullet striking the wall next to her assaulted her ears. "Flank it! It's not armoured on the back!" She called out, before firing again in a vain attempt to hold the brute's attention.

Thankfully her order was heard, as Garrus and Jacob began circling around behind it. Shotgun and rifle snapping up to hi its unprotected sides. Zaeed on the other hand chose to stick close to Shepard. Not that she could blame him, that flamethrower would serve as a bigger distraction then her rifle, that much was for sure.

As if proving this, a burst of flames lashed out and struck the creature. In response it reared up with a savage howl, its hands desperately trying to pat out the flames. "Nice work." Melina commented, though she wasn't surprised when a second later it simply gave up trying to fight the flames and charged towards them.

Again Shepard managed to dodge out of the way. Zaeed, by some mirical was able to narrowly avoid it's fist and leapt to one side. Though now it was to close to risk using the flamethrower on. With a grumbled remark, he dropped the weapon and drew his pistol instead.

Garrus had, somehow put some distance between him and the creature, and didn't hesitate to start shooting. Jacob however remained close by, his shotgun offering several loud booms as he cut deep into its unprotected flank. This of course caused the monster to whip around and take a wild swing at him. And again the soldier was able to dodge, though only barely.

"With all these tanks in here we can't move properly!" Garrus called out, a spent thermal clip clattering to the ground a moment later as he reloaded.

No one bothered to argue or offer a solution. The corridors they'd been through before this point had been narrow and confined. Falling back there would be suicide at best, giving them even less room to dodge and a straight shot for the brute to run them down.

However pressing forwards was out of the question. Who knew what was ahead? More of these things? Or perhaps even tighter rooms that would yield the same result as falling back.

Their best option was to simply keep fighting and put the damn thing down. And that's exactly what Shepard was intending to do as she slammed a fresh clip into her assault rifle and resumed firing. The only way she could see to bring the damn thing down was to just keep shooting till It stopped moving.

And as it lashed out again this time its fist connected with one of the tanks and shattered it, she knew that would take  _a lot_  of bullets to accomplish.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, the elevator finally hit the right deck and the doors opened. The first thing Kasumi noted and this caused her unease to double. Was that the lights were off on the CIC deck as well. Aside from the dull red reserve lights that had kicked in as a result of the power outage.

Luckily, due to her late night explorations, the thief knew the ship quite well. And therefore was confident she could find her way about with tripping over anything.

As she stepped towards the main command console, she instantly regretted not having a gun. This place was downright freaky when dark. And she couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted what appeared to be something moving, though upon spinning around to face it, she noted nothing was there. "Easy Kasumi, you're just letting the dark get to you." She mumbled quietly, after seeing those things down in the hanger. Well that was enough to give anyone nightmares.

Still though, even in the dull light she could tell there was nowhere here, the place was as quiet as the grave.

She soon made her way around the main console and approached the pilot's seat. Sure enough, the seat was empty as well. "What, everyone go on vacation and leave me here?" She said quietly in a vain attempt to raise her spirits. It didn't work, naturally.

If Joker wasn't at his post, then things must be really bad…Kasumi shivered slightly at the thought. First she's left alone while recovering; now the whole crew just up and vanishes. This was beyond creepy.

The thief settled on two choices. Keep looking and hope she found someone, or head for the armoury and grab a gun. Then go looking for people.

She had little reason to believe the ship was dangerous. Given how many people were aboard and the fact that EDI would have warned them if anything had gotten aboard. But the complete ghost ship appearance right now was swiftly killing that train of thought.

With a heavy sigh, she set off back through the ship and towards the armoury. It couldn't hurt to grab a pistol at least…

Again she swore she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye as she passed through the CIC area. But this time she ignored it. Assuming it was just the shadows playing hell with her eyes.

Tapping the panel, the armoury door opened without protest. And surprisingly she noted this part of the ship still had power. The lights automatically clicked on as she ventured inside. "Well that makes a…Change…Whoa…"

And revealed the fact that the room appeared to have been ransacked at some point. The lockers had been thrown open and most of the guns were missing, a few were scattered across the many tables. This only further reinforced her notion that something had gone wrong. Obviously the crew had armed themselves in a hurry, but where were they now?

Setting the thought aside for a moment, she swiftly approached the main table and picked up on of the pistols discarded there. As she did so, Kasumi couldn't ignore the bloody handprint on the surface. Though she did her best not to focus on it and instead checked to ensure there was a clip in her pistol.

"Now to find out what the hell happened here…" She spared a final glance towards the blood stain, before shivering and turning away to find some more ammo for her weapon. As she began checking the various weapon lockers however, her ears perked up at the sound of the armoury door sliding open.


	20. Chapter Twenty

"Alright, the comm. station should be just up ahead." Isaac noted as he pulled activated his map and scanned the interior. A small part of his mind cursed his lack of prior knowledge. But he banished it in favour of scanning the screen. "Just up ahead and around the next corner."

Since making it across the ship's exterior. They'd ended up making their way through several more corridors and rooms. Though thankfully had been left alone by the majority of the necromorphs, only one or two finding them in the darkened corridors.

Ordinarily that would have come as a relief. Though Tali and Thane were still plugged into the squads channel, and had leanred of the rather grim situations facing the rest of the Normandy crew.

Which was why they'd stepped up their efforts to reach the comm center. Without aid from the Normandy their likely wouldn't be a squad to pick up by the time they came back. Plus Isaac still clung to the hope that they could send a proper transmission and get some real help, preferably from Earth.

"Issac, I found out what's blocking the array…You're not going to like this…" The engineer spared a glance over his shoulder as Kendra's voice suddenly cut into his thoughts. No one else had reacted, not noticeably so anyway. Which meant she was using a channel they didn't know.

That wasn't a good sign. "Considering what I've been through today. I doubt it can get much worse." He responded with a sigh, his voice carefully pitched so the others wouldn't hear for the time being. If she was taking steps to keep them out of the loop, he'd do the same, for now at least.

"I managed to access a couple of the external cameras…" After a few moments a small screen popped up on the inside of his helmet and displayed the feed. With a slight bit of adjusting it focused on the massive, thing that was perched atop the array.

"Holy…What the hell is that, that thing?" He finally managed to ask. At this point he'd halted, and he could almost feel Tali and Thane staring at him. "That thing is the size of a damn asteroid!"

"I don't know, but it's blocking the array, and is probably responsible for the communications black out." Without pause, the screen vanished, and his radio cut out.

"Something wrong, Isaac?" The engineer glanced over his shoulder again as Tali spoke, before nodding slightly.

"Yeah…We got problems…"

* * *

"I'm really getting sick of him doing that." Shepard growled as she dodged to one side, another chunk of metal clanging past and missing her by mere inches. Pushing the close call aside, she shouldered her rifle once again and pulled the trigger.

Only wince as a loud click followed the attempt. Pulling the trigger again, she received the same response. "Uh oh…" Ejecting the empty clip, she moved to retrieve another one, and cam up empty there too.

"Damn it. I'm out!" Melina, faced with little other option, simply dropped the now useless rifle and drew her pistol instead. The brute wasn't even showing hints of injury, and they'd already shot the hell out of it.

A loud bang, swiftly followed by a similar warning from the other side of the room swiftly brought the situation into sharp focus. They were all running out of ammo, and the beast didn't even  _look_ injured yet. "Come on, we got to think of something to stop this thing with!"

Shepard inwardly cringed as the brute whipped around to face her, and without pause broke into a charge. She instinctively stepped back, and felt her back strike the wall behind her. Her pistol snapped up a second later and she fired the full clip into the charging monster.

Most of the rounds were ineffective, though one, unluckily struck the creatures armoured shoulders and ricocheted back, striking Melina in the leg. Thankfully her armour absorbed most of the impact.

Just before the brute slammed her into the wall and likely finished what it started on the bridge. A burst of biotic energy struck it hard in the side and caused it to stumble sideways. Just far enough for the commander to leap to one side.

The room shook as the necromorph struck the wall hard enough to buckle the bulkhead and in turn cause Shepard to lose her balance. Before she hit the ground however, Jacob caught her and swiftly yanked her back out of the creatures reach.

"With all due respect. I don't think Cerberus is ready to rebuild you a second time ma'am." He commented before letting go of the commander in favour of putting another shotgun round through the stunned monsters hide.

Ignoring the remark, Shepard focused instead on reloading and putting another burst of pistol bullets into the creature. "What's it going to take to kill this son of a bitch?" She cursed, as her gun clicked empty yet again. By now the brute had shaken off it's disorientation and had swept around to attack once again.

"I'm open to suggestions!" Shepard called out as she loaded another clip into her pistol, damn it this was going to run out soon…

"When I think of something, you'll be the first to know commander." Garrus responded as he fired his sniper rifle. How exactly he was able to keep his weapon focused with it moving all over the place at an alarming pace she didn't know. But that was why he was the one with the rifle and not her.

* * *

Down a soldier, the fight against the hunter was going as well as one would expect. Very poorly.

Mordin and Hammond did their best, but with each limb severed, the creature simply regenerated a second later. And if anything, was growing stronger with each regrown limb.

Another burst of rifle fire ripped through the hulking beast. Though as quickly as the bullets struck, the wounds simply closed, and the hunter continued it's advance towards the rapidly retreating pair. "Shooting it isn't working…I hope you have a better idea?"

Mordin hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head. "No. Don't have access to equipment. Bullets ineffective but only option."

"I was afraid you were going to say that…" Faced with little other option. They continued wasting bullets on the monster. Hammonds gaze darted about in search of a solution, though naturally came up empty. Naturally the cryo bay only had the cryo unit itself. No locable rooms, no side corridors they could trap it in.

Wait…Cryo bay…

"Mordin!" The salaran's eyes snapped around to focus on the human as they both reloaded, the hunter was almost on them, and they were running out of room to back away. At this point it was deliberately holding back, it knew as well as they did that they couldn't kill it.

Hammond nodded towards the control room for the cryo unit. "If you can access the controls, we can freeze the bastard, hopefully. I'll lure him into the cryo unit. Just hit the button once he's in there."

Mordin hesitated for a moment, before nodding slightly. If the two of them together couldn't hold the hunter back, how would Hammond fair on his own? But that was beside the point. This was their best, or rather only option…Waste bullets until it grew bored and slaughtered them. Or try freezing it and at least stand a chance of survival.

The biggest problem they had to deal with now was ensuring the necromorph stayed focused on Hammond.

Without pausing to think. The soldier swiftly broke into a sprint towards the hunter, blindly firing his rifle as he went. Seizing the opportunity, Mordin made a run for the console.

Surprisingly, the monster ignored Hammond, and instead set its gaze on the doctor. Before the human could even move more then a few steps, it burst into motion and left him for dead. Not only could it regenerate, but it was faster too.

Mordin swiftly skidded to a halt as the hunter imposed itself between him and the door leading to the cryo bay controls. A low growl escaped it as he lashed out with one bladed arm and forced him to leap back a step.

"Damn it." Hammond cursed as he fired again and did his best to draw its attention back to him. Naturally it didn't budge, and instead began closing the gap with Mordin instead.

* * *

"Keelah, how exactly are we supposed to deal with that, monster?" Tali hissed as Isaac finished relaying what they were up against. Her suspicion as to why they weren't tol das well had swiftly drained away at the news that they were up against something that was probably bigger then the Normandy.

"Well, I don't think our current weapons will do the job." Isaac commented, making a point of examining his cutter as he spoke. "There are a few ADS cannons up this end of the ship. We might be able to use one of them to dislodge it…Or at the very least piss it off."

Neither the quarian, or drell looked convinced at that comment. Hell Isaac didn't feel to emboldened by his words either. "Still, the ADS is the only thing big enough to at least harm that thing." Both nodded at this point.

"Where's the nearest cannon to the array?" Tali asked as she activated her Omni-tool and began tapping in a series of commands. Luckily she'd been able to convince Isaac to give her access to the maps. Though naturally most of it was simply a twisted maze to her eyes.

Isaac brought up his own holo map and examined it for a few seconds. Before highlighting a nearby corridor. "Here, there's an elevator down to the cannons. From there we can hopefully pry the creature loose…Preferably without destroying the array in the process." With that settled, the trio set off once again.

Another spent thermal clip clattered to the floor. And with it, Shepard's hopes of stopping the brute. She was down to her second last clip. And the damn thing didn't even look winded!

Naturally she wasn't the only one. Jacob had long run out as well and was forced to rellie on his biotics. Not the best of choices considering how quickly that would drain his energy.

Garrus was low as well, and forced to fire only when he was sure the shot would do damage, which so far had led to him not firing at all due to being unable find a weak point.

Shepard's eyes darted about the room as the creature briefly turned its attention towards Jacob. Apparently getting a blast of biotic energy to the skull was enough to tick it off at least. "Were out of ammo and almost out of options…" As much as she hated the idea…"Fall back! Head for the door!" Without pausing she began inching away from the brute. There was nothing else for it, they couldn't kill the damn thing. Maybe they could find a way of putting a door between them and get away.

A handful of confirmations followed, and swiftly enough the squad began to retreat as well. Though given the brute was still free to attack. Simply withdrawing wouldn't be easy, but what other choice did they have? Eventually they'd run out of ammunition and be easy pickings for the monster.

"With all due respect commander…Were not going to out run it." Zaeed pitched in as he abruptly appeared at her side, flamethrower in hand. "Not without slowing it down anyway."

Melina didn't like the sound of that. However she wasn't about to question the mercenary. "I assume you have a plan then?" She asked, her pistol snapping up and firing off a few blind shots. By some miracle she struck the necromorph in the eye, a loud howl of rage and pain escaped as one fist slammed into the deck and split the several inch steel in two.

"You worry about getting the rest of them out of here. I'll keep ugly off you're back." Zaeed stated after a moment. Before Shepard could even blink he was out of reach, his flamethrower blazing as he tried to take advantage of the beasts disorientation.

"Zaeed! Damn it! Everyone else fall back to the door, now!" She ordered, her pistol dropping to her side as she decided against firing into the flames. If anything she would probably wind up hitting her friend rather then the necromorph.

Thankfully, no one else decided to try playing hero and swiftly took the opportunity to jog back to the door. Shepard risked a glance over her shoulder. Though aside fro the brute stumbling about and swinging wildly, she couldn't make out much else.

Finally she reached the door and turned back, a hand jumping to her ear. "Zaeed, were at the door!" She waited for a few moments, though only static greeted her. "Zaeed? Zaeed!"

Cursing, she checked the power supply on her pistol, before moving to go back into the room and find the missing mercenary. Before she could make it more then two steps, a hand closed around her arm and stopped her. "We don't have the fire power to go back in there! He knows what he's doing Shepard." Garrus said reassuringly. Though despite his best attempts, Melina could pick up on the lack of conviction behind his words.

Reluctantly, she nodded and slammed her fist into the button to close the door. "…That won't hold it for long. Lets hope Zaeed can find a way to kill it, or at least get the hell out of there." She muttered quietly, before spinning around to address the squad.

Garrus and Jacob were busy checking the counters on their weapons. Wait a second…"Where's Jack?"

* * *

Mordin, by some stroke of luck, managed to leap backwards a step, just in time to avoid the hunter's talons. Though naturally that only served to annoy it further. And with a snarl it began to advance on the scientist once again.

Hammond, out of instinct fired another burst into its back. Though the bullets seemed to simply bounce off it rather then actually do damage. Mordin too was unable to do any damage despite putting several pistol bullets into it's head.

There wasn't much else to be done. They couldn't kill it, and if they were going to use the cryo unit they would need someone at the controls…

Hammond, knowing there was no other way to go about it. Swiftly dashed past the hunter as it took another wild swing at the salarian and punched the button to cycle the door open. No soon did the door beep to register the command, did the hunter snap around to focus on him instead.

This wasn't going to be easy. It knew where they were going, and obviously what they planned to do. And therefore was going to keep them away from the controls. Considering they couldn't even hurt it at this point. That wasn't exactly a difficult goal.

Luckily for them, the squad wasn't without its tricks either.

Before the necromorph could advance more then a few steps, Hammond lashed out with one hand, a bolt of energy leaving the device attached to his wrist. A moment later it struck the hunter, which promptly slowed almost to a crawl.

He knew the stasis field wouldn't last long, though it would keep it at bay long enough to get the door open.

Which thankfully opened with a loud hiss a second later. "Keep it busy! I'll get the cryo bay warmed up." The soldier called out, before ducking through the door and hitting the command for it to close behind him.

A split second after it shut and locked, a loud bang reverberated through the small room as the hunter finally shook off the stasis unit –much fasted then normal he noted- and slammed head first into the steel.

A loud screech followed as the necromorph began slashing at the door. In only three strike the claws tore there way through the solid steel and it began to buckle under the constant assault.

Mordin however swiftly began firing once again. And despite the lack of damage, the hunter was soon distracted by the gunshots and returned it's attention to the doctor.

"Hurry, prepare chamber, will keep it busy." He called out, before swiftly moving backwards to keep out of the necromorphs reach. Which was no easy feat given both the size of its blades, and how fast it moved.

Mordin was hardly out of shape though. And his training in the past didn't let him down as he continuously sidestepped or ducked under the scythe blades and slowly lured it back towards the cryo chamber.

Hammond meanwhile was busy tapping away at the console, and cursing at every second that passed that the system didn't boot up. "Come on you useless hunk of junk!" A confirmation finally flashed up, and his gaze snapped to the window as a loud roar escaped the hunter. So far Mordin was still keeping out of reach. And it was getting pissed off as a result.

"Cryo chambers warming up, get it into it!" He hissed into his comm. Mordin didn't response, though he knew he'd been heard, as the salarian began directing them towards it. Even though it had only just come online. There was already mist creeping out of the chamber. It was now or never…

Mordin meanwhile, was obviously beginning to grow fatigued by the constant dodging, as the blades were coming closer and closer to hitting him each time. Hammond knew he couldn't help though. Someone had to be here to trigger the freezer.

Finally the scientist stumbled back into the freezer, and couldn't suppress a shiver at the sudden, drastic drop in temperature. Thankfully, the hunter was right behind him. The cold clearly not deterring it.

Mordin continued to inch backwards, one hand leaping to his ear as he fired his pistol with the other. "Now or never. Seal cryo chamber!" He shouted, before focusing entirely on the hunter.

Hammond nodded slightly, before tapping in the command to activate the cryo bay. A warning sounded, ordering everyone to get clear. But neither doctor nor necromorph paid it any mind.

The scientist kept firing as the hunter stepped further into the chamber. Behind it he could see the door beginning to descend and knew the one behind him was lowering as well. He had seconds before it sealed him in with it.

This momentary distraction gave the hunter the upper hand, if only briefly. And a moment later it lashed out, it's bladed talon cutting deep into the salarian's arm.

Mrodin let out a cry of pain as his gun clattered to the floor and he was sent stumbling back another step. There was little point making a grab for the weapon, after all the door was almost shut.

The doctor's eyes snapped past the hunter. The door behind it was indeed about to close, which meant he had about two seconds to get the heck out of there before he was locked in as well.

The necromorph took another mad swing at him, and Mordin leapt backwards, -just barely ducking under the door- and stumbling back out of its reach. However, despite this he knew it would simply step out and continue its attack, he'd moved to soon.

As the hunter attempted to follow him out of the cryo bay however, another bolt of energy struck it in the chest, and again it slowed to a crawl. "That should hold him." Hammond growled as he lowered his arm, for now ignoring the blinking red light on his stasis module that indicated it was out of power.

Before the effects of the stasis field wore off, the doors slammed shut. And the hunter could only claw vainly at the inside of the cryo bay as it slowly froze to death.

"You okay? Looks like he got you good." Hammond asked as he took note of the deep gouge in Mordin's arm, the salarian however simply waved him off.

"Fine, Medi-gel will fix promptly…More worried about Lawson…Wounds, probably fatal." Both fell silent as they gave the cryo a wide berth and moved to the fallen biotic. Both of them cursed the fact that they couldn't get to her sooner. But the situation just hadn't allowed for it.

Both of them knew this would be pointless, the rapidly spreading pool of blood alone was proof enough that they were too late. But neither was willing to leave her behind.

Mordin, ignoring the blood, slowly shifted into a crouch and gently rolled the Cerberus agent onto her back. His Omni-tool lit up a second later as he b egan examining her vital signs.

"How bad is she?" Hammoned asked as he sunk to one knee next to the doctor. After studying the screen for a moment, Mordin shook his head.

"Lost too much blood. Even if I had tools, could, close wound. Too late…Nothing I can do to help her…" The salarian briefly tilted his wrist as he shifted his position, and Hammond caught a brief glimpse of the screen. Her heart had stopped beating, and the list of injures were almost sickening. The hole in her chest where the hunter had impaled her hadn't been the only damage, when she'd been thrown against the wall she'd broken several bones and caused internal injures on top of it.

Even if, by some miracle she'd still been alive after all that, and had lived long enough for them to kill the hunter. They wouldn't have been able to do anything.

Mordin was the first to stand. And in a shocking display, slammed one fist into the wall. Despite obviously jarring his hand and wrist. "My fault…Should have acted sooner…" He stated sadly, before finally unclipping the plasma cutter he'd taken from the Ishimura's armoury and checking the ammo counter. "Can't help her…Best we continue with mission…Ensure, death not in vain."

"If you need a minute" Hammond offered, the doctor knew her better then he did, but it made the loss no less troubling on him as well.

"No, time for emotions later, mission top priority."

* * *

Kasumi pretended not to notice the door opening at first, favouring instead to finish searching the weapons locker. Thankfully there was still a few thermal clips that were loaded and ready for use. She didn't grab them just yet, waiting instead for, whatever it was behind her to draw closer.

Once the foot steps were close enough, she snapped around pistol raising as a warning. "That's close…Enough." She trailed off slowly as her gaze settled on the, thing before her. Something about the face gave her a sense of familiarity. However it was obviously not a friend anymore.

Like the monsters she'd encountered, and almost been killed by, in the hanger. The former Normandy crew member was now one of the necromorphs. It's fingers had elongated into claw like talons. Eyes that were once polite and inquisitive were now soulless and showed only a primal hunger. And upon realizing the element of surprise was gone. It snarled and leapt forward, its claw like fingers attempting to close around Kasumi's neck.

The thief however was just a second faster and easily slid to one side and smashed her pistol into the side of its skull. With a choked yelp the creature slammed into the weapons locker and collapsed to the deck. Though only a second later it leapt upright and started to rush her again.

As it tried to close the gap a second time however. Kasumi snapped her firearm up and emptied the clip into the unfortunate crew member. By the time the pistol clicked empty, the creature was riddled with holes and finally collapsed to the deck, its limbs still flailing as it tried to find enough stamina to leap back upright again.

Before it could however, its opponent brought her foot down on one arm, and with a sicken crunch the limb was severed. She did this again for one of the legs, and it finally stopped moving and fell limp.

Before double checking the necromorph, Kasumi snatched another clip from the locker and reloaded her pistol. "Great…As if the hanger wasn't bad enough…" She said quietly, before turning her gaze back upon the monster. Something about it just felt, wrong.

Despite her instincts protesting otherwise, she sunk into a crouch and examined the necromorph more closely. What remained of its face finally made her leap back in shock.

There was no mistaking the face of the ships yeoman Kelly Chambers… "Oh, god…What the hell is going on here!"

* * *

Isaac briefly checked his map, and allowed a sigh to escape him when he noted they were almost to the guns. Just a couple more minutes and they could pry that thing loose and get a real distress signal sent out. Not to mention reconnect with the Normandy and hopefully arrange a way off this death trap.

This wouldn't be easy however; as the trio had been running into increasing numbers of necromorphs the closer they got to the elevator. It was unnerving to say the least. It seemed either the creatures themselves, or whatever was controlling them, was trying to keep them away from the ADS cannons.

Of course, fate it seemed had it in for the squad. As just before they reached the elevator, the engineer's comm crackled into life once again. "Isaac…We've got another problem." Kendra's voice alone put him on edge, though he knew whatever it was that was unnerving her, would no doubt be much worse for him somehow.

"I doubt it's any worse then a giant necromorph clinging to the communications array…" He mumbled just loud enough for her to hear. Before he even finished speaking, he knew that whatever it was,

Kendra cut out a moment later, though what followed made the engineer's heart skip a beat. Then as it sunk in, his blood run cold. "This is the USM Valor, widecasting on all frequencies to USG Ishimura in response to you're SOS…Repeat. This is the USM Valor…" The rest of the broadcast seemed to fade away as the words slowly sunk in. Help had arrived at last…And they didn't even know what they were walking into…


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

"Isaac? Isaac!" The engineer jumped slightly and snapped his gaze up to meet eh concerned -or at least thought she looked concerned- helmet of Tali. "What's wrong?" She asked quietly.

It took a long moment before he could regain control of his hands and adjust the signal on his rig so they could hear it as well. Though he could read Thane's expression, or really see Tali at all. The same realization clearly sunk in a momentlater as the message was repeated by the Valor.

"If they dock with the Ishimura…" Tali began, though she didn't finish the statement, they all already knew what that would mean. More bodies for these, monsters to throw at them. "Keelah. We have to warn them!"

"Kendra. Is there anyway you can get a message to the Valor?" The screen in front of him shifted from the recording to the woman's face. Which told the trio before she spoke what the answer would be.

"No, with that, that thing blocking the array I can only receive I can't transmit anything until you deal with it!"

Isaac nodded slightly, before switching the screen off. "Alright, we'll have to get to those guns, and fast. The last thing we need is more lives being claimed by the necromorphs."

No one protested, and a moment later they broke into a jog once again. The loud ringing of their boots on the deck drowning out the faint clattering of steps behind them.

* * *

"Ammo check." Shepard ordered, before tilting her weapon to check the counter on the side of her pistol, with her rifle flat dry, and this down to, half a clip. They were in a pretty tight spot. Her gaze snapped up to Garrus as he shook his head.

"Three rounds for my rifle…A clip for my assault rifle." Jacob soon gave a similar report.

Perfect. After a moment of thought she activated her comm. "Kendra, Hammond," She really hoped one of them was still on the channel. "Were getting close to the main hydroponics deck. But were low on ammo…"

Silence followed for a few moments, before she received a response. "I can't promise much…But according to the schematics of that deck, there's a equipment storage center on that deck. Judging by the alerts I'd say you're not far." Kendra responded calmly "I can't say for certain if it's been raided or not. But that's you're best –or rather, only- bet without turning back."

Shepard spared a glance towards the door behind her. "Turning backs not an option. We'll have to find that storage area then."

"Hold on." Garrus cut in before they could move. "You have equipment storage on this deck? It sounds like the ship was expecting trouble." Ordinarily Melina would have waved the concern aside. But all things considered, the turian did have a point.

"I wasn't in charge of the ships designs so don't ask me." Kendra said firmly, before the connection cut. The squad all shared a concerned glance, before setting off what they hoped was the right direction.

"Simply delightful, isn't she?" Shepard commented as she fell into step behind Jacob. Both Garrus and Jacob didn't respond. Though she didn't care.

* * *

Neither Hammond nor Mordin moved for a long moment as the cryo bay finished its cycle and opened once again. Both waited nervously for the hunter to begin its rampage once again. However after several tense seconds the mist cleared enough to reveal the creature was firmly locked in place, frozen.

Despite it being frozen and clearly no longer a threat. The pair still gave it a wide berth, and refused to lower their weapons until they reached the door. "At least we don't have to worry about that thing anymore." Hammond finally spoke, his voice devoid of emotion.

Mordin didn't respond at all, instead he simply tapped the command to open the door and set off into the corridor beyond. Hammond on the other hand spared one last glance over his shoulder before following suit. Without the necromorph to bar their way, they could get to work on the poison and hopefully get back to Shepard without any more difficulties.

The solider winced as the thought occurred to him. How well would the commander and the rest of her squad going to take the news that they were down a soldier?

He'd cross that bridge once they got there. For now he had to stay focused on the here and now. Bringing up the map again, he confirmed the main lab was on the other side of the corridor. "Just up ahead." He confirmed before clicking the map off and redrawing his rifle. Who knew what was awaiting them in the lab…

* * *

Luckily for them, the elevator was only a short jog away. And soon enough Isaac, Tali and Thane were on the right level and arriving at the ADS cannons. "Alright, there should be one cannon through that door." Isaac paused for a moment as he briefly examined the map of the deck. "And another one just down that corridor." He nodded towards a side passage.

"I can handle the other cannon…" Tali volunteered, the engineer simply nodded slightly.

"No doubt once we piss that thing off, the necromporhs will swarm the deck…Do you think you can hold them off for a few minutes?" Thane nodded slightly, a hand already shifting to retrieve his sniper rifle. The straight corridor back to the elevator would be a killing ground for him. At least for a few moments.

"Alright, let's just hope it doesn't put up much of a fight." Isaac hesitated for a moment, before tapping the command to open the door and slipped inside, Tali swiftly set off towards the other cannon as well.

Isaac couldn't help but frown as he carefully slid into the chair behind the cannon controls. He hadn't actually, used one of these before. Not in a combat situation anyway. And now he was forced to try and figure it out on the fly and at the same time kill that, thing.

His gaze shifted past the cannon and towards the viewport in front of him. "Whoa…You're a lot uglier in person." He commented slowly as he caught his first, first hand look at the monster. Even though they were a good few kilometres away. That thing was simply massive. As he watched it, several tentacle like appendages (Seriously, what was with necromorphs and tentacles anyway?) lazily shifted about and came to rest on the outside of the ship. Maybe that was the thing that had been plaguing them since they arrived?

Gripping the controls. Isaac was briefly surprised at how smoothly the cannons shifted around as he moved it into position. "Tali, I'm at the cannon, you all set?"

"Hold on, just need to…Okay, ready." Tali's voice came across as, uneasy. Though the engineer didn't say anything, chances are she was having a rough time figuring out how to use it.

He just hoped she was ready when it counted.

"Okay, lets see what these things can do." Isaac paused long enough to take a deep breath. Before thumbing the trigger for the cannons. A pair of echoing bangs followed, and he winced as the area around him jolted from the sudden weapons discharge. Despite this, the two shots streaked towards the slug and struck it square in the…Well center mass.

Two flashes of light signalled where the rounds struck, and for a single heartbeat the human was convinced it hadn't done anything. Before a loud roar ripped through the silence and caused the entire ship to shudder.

"I think that got his attention." Isaac smiled, so it could be hurt after all. His smile faded a moment later however as one of the tentacles whipped out into space and somehow coiled around a nearby asteroid. A second later it hurled it towards the cannon he was manning at an alarming speed.

Just before it struck however, a flash of cannon fire from Tali vaporized the offending chunk of rock. "Nice shooting." The engineer commented into his comm. Before focusing his attention, and fire back onto the necromorph.

Another burst of cannon fire from both him and Tali struck the creature. A lucky round actually going so far as to rip one of the tenticles in half, thus costing the creature a valuable limb.

However before they could press the advantage, the sound of screeching metal ripped through the air, and a second later another of the monsters limbs snapped around and tossed a sizeable chuck of the ships outer plating towards them.

"Oh hell."

* * *

"Okay, this should be the right place." Shepard warned the remainder of her squad as she tapped the command to open the door. A hiss escaped it as the pressure equalized, before it opened a moment later. All three instinctively brought their weapons up and waited as the lights automatically snapped on.

Thankfully the equipment storage room was devious of any flesh hungering monstrosities. Shepard was the first to enter, her pistol held in one hand as she scanned the interior. Several lockers were scattered about the small room. But aside from that it was largely empty.

"Are you sure we got the right place?" Garrus asked as he followed her into the room, assault rifle pressed tightly against his shoulder. A quick examination of the interior confirmed they were the only occupants. Though the dull thrumming of a fan confirmed there was an air vent the creatures could use easily enough. Perhaps more then one.

"Lets hope so." Melina replied as she tapped the command to open one of the lockers. A warning flashed up on the screen indicating a password was needed. "Don't have time for…THIS!" With a growl Shepard slammed the butt of her pistol into the interface and caused it to flicker and die in a shower of sparks. A moment later she yanked the door open, likely breaking any locks that were still in place.

A loud whistle soon followed as the commander stepped back to reveal the contents of the locker. Namely several assault rifles like Hammond carried. And plenty of Ammunition to go with it.

"Yep, right place." Shepard commented with a smirk, before holstering her pistol in favour of collecting one of the rifles. "Check the other lockers. Lets find out what else is in stock." Garrus didn't waste any time prying open the next locker. Another set of weapons, these unrecognizable being stashed within.

Hefting the weapon, the turian paused as he noted a label on one side of the barrel. "IM-822 Line Gun…Sounds dangerous." Shepard could tell by the way he was smiling that he was looking forward to putting the weapon to the test.

Jacob on the other hand, still had his rifle and was more then willing to simply stock up on ammo instead of replacing it. "This should keep us going until we get back to the Normandy…Which hopefully will be soon." The Cerberus soldier mumbled, all the while putting a fresh clip into his weapon.

* * *

Hammond sighed heavily as he carefully rested his back against the wall of the main lab. As he did so, his gaze came to rest on Mordin who was currently darting about the place at an insane pace.

Despite everything that had, and was happening. He still found a small measure of amusement at how eager the scientist was to work. Now that he was in an environment he knew well it was like someone had taken him off a leash or something. His hands were a blur as he snatched up various tools and other assorted items he'd need to make the poison, or whatever he was planning to make.

For now at least Hammond just kept an eye on the room in general, his rifle clutched in a loose grip as he waited for any sign of the necromorphs deciding to attack again. "How long is this going to take?" The soldier queried as he watched him work. He wasn't a scientist, and trying to follow what Mordin was doing was making his head hurt.

"Not long. Minutes at best." The doctor replied in his rapid speech, in response Hammond simply shrugged before falling silent. Before long however he was wracked by a coughing fit. Initially he didn't worry about it, however with in breath he noted the air was growing less agreeable.

Hell, the toxin hadn't reached this far, had it?

* * *

Another hunk of ship was hurled towards them. And again the combined fire of Isaac and Tali's ADS cannons swiftly ripped it to pieces small enough that they simply glanced off the plating of the ship.

"Damn it, I can't get a clear shot with that thing throwing stuff at us non stop!" Isaac cursed as he shifted his aim back to the slug. Another burst of fire ripped into its flesh, but aside from another howl of what he hoped was pain. It appeared uninjured.

"Isaac, focus on the creature. I'll do my best to deal with the debris." Tali's voice ordered through a wash of static. Despite not being able to see him, the engineer nodded in response.

"Got it. Lets just hope one cannon is enough to take it out." Tali didn't respond. Though he knew she was worrying about the same thing. After all if they didn't kill it in time, then it would eventually overwhelm them. The cannons could only maintain constant fire for so long before overheating. They'd only been fighting for a few minutes at best and already the heat reading was reaching critical levels.

After loosing another barrage at the slug. Isaac removed his tumbs from the triggers and breathed a sigh of frustration. The gun began to cool, albeit agonizingly slowly. What amounted to ten or twelve seconds while the weapon cooled down, felt like hours as he watched Tali destroy countless chunks of rock and torn up ship plating.

As soon as the heat readout sunk back into *safe* levels Isaac began firing yet again. The first burst caught the necromorph off guard, and a loud ear splitting screech signalled a second limb being shredded by the heavy calibre fire.

"Looks like its weakening. Let's hope it just dies soon." He commented, though naturally it lobbed another asteroid at them a second later just to prove it was far from finished.

Another quick burst from Tali vaporized the obstacle however. And Isaac swiftly resumed firing upon the slug. "Just, die you ugly son of a bitch!" He growled, as the gun once again reached critical levels and he was forced to stop.

As the deafening booms of the cannon faded, he was just able to pick up on the rhythmic cracking of a sniper rifle in the distance. Thane was no doubt having his own problems.

There wasn't time to dwell on it however, as the giant necromorph snarled again and ripped another sizeable chunk out of the Ishimura and threw it, this time towards Tali's cannon.

Noting that the piece was much larger then the previous ones, the engineer brought his own weapon to bear and opened fire as well. It would take both of them to destroy it.

Despite the combined firepower however. The several inch thick armour plating was somehow withstanding the barrage. And after only a few seconds Tali's cannon cut out entirely. "Damn it. The cannons overheated!"

Isaac cursed as he tried to pick up the slack. Though it was obvious he wouldn't be able to accomplish it in time. "Tali, get out of there!" To late, a loud bang reverberated through the ship and almost tossed the engineer out of his seat. Instead is head pitched forward and smacked into the controls.

A groan escaped him as he let his head fall back onto the, thankfully cushioned seat. "Hell…Gonna leave a mark…" He knew he couldn't stop; the creature wasn't going to stop until it died or they did. Though now as he forced himself upright he noted everything was blurry and unfocused.

"Tali…You okay?" He called out through the comm. Only static greeted his question. "Tali? Thane? Hell." Chances are he'd busted his comm when he struck the console.

Or so he hoped at any rate…

* * *

Now sporting new weapons and ammunition. Shepard and her squad once again set off towards the source of the tainted air. During the rush of the last few minutes they hadn't noticed just how thick and sickly the air was becoming. Shepard winced as a deep breath resulted in her dissolving into a coughing fit.

Garrus seemed to be less susceptible to it, though even he was starting to show signs of illness as the poisoned air affected his lungs. "Let's hope whatever's doing this is easy to find. I don't know how much longer I can, keep going." Melina said quietly, her voice a choked rasp as she fought keep breathing and somehow ignore the toxic, whatever it was that came with it.

Naturally that was easier said then done. "How exactly are we going to…Purify the air…? I don't think I'm even going to make it to, source." Shepard managed to say between coughs. She had no idea how close they were. Though judging by the rapidly deteriorating air quality. They were close.

"Who knows. But we can't give up now; we made it this far after all." Jacob pitchd in, somehow he was able to resist better then the commander, though if anyone were to pay attention they would note he was a shade paler then normal, and now and again stumbled slightly as he followed along close behind Melina and Garrus.

Shepard could only nod slightly as she tapped the panel to open another door. If they didn't find it soon they would all end up dead. However turning back was out of the question.

A second later the squad regretted unlocking the door. As a moment after the pressure equalized and it slid open. The air quality went from bad, to literally unbreathable. "Wh-What the, hell!" Shepard cursed as she stumbled back and to one side. She was just able to make out the VI warning of toxins in the air and an evacuation notice. Though she was too focused on fighting back another coughing fit to really care.

Once she'd managed to regain some semblance of her breath, she shakily shouldered her rifle and led the way into the room. Over the coughs of herself and her team, she became painfully aware that they weren't alone in the room.

The reason for this being the sudden sound of breathing. Though unlike what would have probably been just barely noticeable. The sound was almost deafening in the small room. And with each ragged breath whatever it was took. Shepard felt the urge to throw up grow stronger.

Advancing into the room, her gaze finally tracked the sound back to its source. Namely what appeared to be a human that was curled up in the far corner. A closer inspection however made the ill feeling double.

It had human at some point. Now it was some form of, creature that was simply sitting there gasping for breath. "What the hell, is that?" Shepard asked quietly as she brought her rifle up. She didn't know why. But the damn thing had what appeared to be…Lungs, oversized ones at that protruding out of its back. There was little doubt this was what was polluting the air.

"Shooting him would be a favour I think commander." Garrus said uneasily as he prepared to finish the job himself. Before he could act however. Melina simply pulled the trigger and fired a short burst from her new rifle. The creature managed a ragged moan of pain, before it slumped to the floor and stoped moving entirely.

Several tense seconds passed, before a sudden rush of air made the squad jump. "Air quality levels restored." The VI stated as the air was –or so Shepard assumed- vented and replaced with purer air.

Naturally the squad greedily inhaled the fresh air and tried to purge their lungs of the toxic substance the necromorph had been tainting the ship with. "Well…At least we know what were hunting for now."

* * *

Isaac offered another curse as he was forced, yet again to shift his aim away from the massive necromorph and destroy an asteroid flung at him by one of it's remaining tentacles.

Since Tali had stopped responding on the comm he'd been forced to handle everything single handily. Which was no easy task. The creature was relentless and had a ready made supply of asteroids and chunks of the Ishimura itself it could throw at him. Eventually it would run out. But he'd be dead long before that no doubt.

With that threat out of the way. He focused yet again on the slug. As one of the limbs lashed out in search of another object to throw, the engineer seized the opportunity to strike. Another burst of cannon fire, and another shriek as a tentacle was ripped apart and severed.

For a moment the necromorph halted, aside from a slight twitching of the remaining three limbs. Isaac took the opportunity to let the cannon cool while he waited for it to either die, or start attacking again. "Tali…Tali i think we got it…" Still no response. He was picking up a faint crackle of static however so it wasn't his comm as he'd first deluded himself into thinking.

Tense seconds passed as his gaze jumped between the temperature readout on the cannon, and the massive creature that sat idle on the communications tower. Maybe another shot wouldn't hurt; just to make sure it was-

Before he could even think about grabbing the controls, the creature suddenly surged into motion once again, a loud roar of anger, or perhaps pain he couldn't tell which. Caused the ship to tremble around him.

"For god's sake…Just die already!" Isaac snarled, before firing off another burst of cannon fire. How much could this thing take? Sure enough the burst ripped one of the remaining limbs from the creature, and without pause he shifted his aim to take out the second last tentacle, if he couldn't kill it he'd damn well disarm it.

As some final act of defiance, it once again ripped a chunk of plating out of the ship, probably the biggest yet. And hurled it towards Isaac's cannon. A moment later the second remaining tentacle was ripped in half by a well aimed burst of cannon fire.

Now the engineer was faced with a difficult choice. Go for the last limb and hopefully put it down for good. Or try to deal with the chunk of ship and possibly miss his chance. Either prospect wasn't that promising.

In the blink of an eye he'd considered both outcomes and decided on the best course of action. It was a simple matter to adjust the sights and squeeze the triggers until the gun overheated.

With an ear splitting howl the final tentacle was shredded into bloody pieces. And at last it stopped moving, this time Isaac was sure it wouldn't be getting back up, or if it did then it was out of ways to attack him. Or so he hoped anyway.

Now came the problem of the massive chunk of ship that was about to hit the cannon… Without thinking he snapped the sights around and fired. Or rather hit the triggers and received a blinking warning light in response. The cannon had over heated!

"Just not my day today!" Isaac cursed as he leapt out of the chair and broke into a jog towards the door leading back into the corridor.

He only made it a few steps before the plate crashed into the cannon, which promptly caused the shields to fail. The loud bang of t striking was swiftly followed by an even louder boom as the cannon (And it's ammunition) exploded from the sudden impact.

Luckily due to his rapid movements he was able to avoid the worst of the blast, though as a result he was promptly knocked off his feet and slammed into the door he'd been trying to reach.

"Ouch…" Isaac groaned as he carefully picked himself up. His right shoulder and back now ached from the impact, but all and all he was still alive. So that had to count for something, right?

The engineer swiftly punched the button to open the door and stumbled out into the corridor. "Thane…Ah I think we killed it…" He commented, though as he surveyed the hallway his joyful mood swiftly took a downward plunge.

"Holy shit…" There was dead necrmorph's everywhere! a dozen or more of them were scattered about the corridor, missing limbs, riddled with bullets. It looked like the assassin had a field day keeping them covered.

The only problem was, there was no assassin present…His comm, thankfully crackled to life a moment later, though it wasn't quite the voice he wanted to hear. "Isaac, you did it! Communications are back online." He nodded slightly, though swiftly regretted it as a sharp pain lanced up his shoulder and neck.

"Great. Contact the Valor and warn them about what's going on here." He replied through gritted teeth. A moment later the comm went dead and he adjusted the frequency. "Thane, Tali, someone better still be out there."

Silence, Isaac held his breath as the seconds ticked by. God damn it they couldn't be dead!

Just as he was about to give up, the static finally gave way to a voice. "I'm here…" He finally exhaled the breath he'd been holding as he recognized the voice as the ever silent Thane. "I'm at the other cannon…I, think its best you join me." The relief much like before evaporated instantly. Something about his tone just made his blood run cold.

Though given the odd speech patterns the drell had. Maybe he was just misinterpreting the tone.

Regardless, he mumbled a quick response and broke into a sprint down the side passage. The only things he could think of as being wrong was more necromorph's. Or one of them was hurt.

He didn't like the sound of either prospect.

* * *

Once the shock of finding a fellow crew member in such a state passed. Kasumi swiftly collected a handful of clips and set off back to the elevator. There was clearly nothing on this deck. Not alive at any rate.

The thief did her best to steady her hands as she pressed the call button on the lift and began to rock back and forth on the spot. She was having a hard time digesting the fact that one of the crew had been that, thing that had attacked her in the armoury.

Even as she pushed the thought to the back of her mind however, a new one crept up. Just how many others had turned? If Kelly had transformed into that thing. Then surely she wasn't the only one…It would explain why the ship appeared deserted at any rate.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud clang behind her. And without pause the thief snapped around and brought her pistol up.

After sweeping back and forth with her pistol and gaze however, Kasumi frowned as she failed to notice anything out of place, or any threats. "I'm losing it." She whispered quietly as the elevator doors slid open behind her. At least now she could head down to engineering…

Spinning on her heel, she stepped into the elevator and tapped the button for the engineering deck. As the doors closed she allowed herself a slight sigh of relief. Somehow she'd expected something to actually be in the lift.

Thankfully that wasn't the case. Or so it seemed at any rate.

Naturally her paranoia was justified, just not in the way she expected. After waiting for several moments for the elevator to begin it's descent. Kasumi was just beginning her usual silent rant about how slow it was, when something abruptly slammed into the roof of the lift.

A moment alter it ripped a section of the ceiling out and dropped into the narrow space with her. The thief had enough time to leap back and press herself against one wall, before the necromorph abruptly lashed out with one clawed hand.

Instead of going for the gun she was trying to bring to bear, instead its claw closed around her throat. The first shot struck the wall behind it, the second caught it in the ribs, and a third never came as it slammed her into the wall and caused her to drop the pistol.

Her hands swiftly jumped to the wrist of the creatures arm as it tried to throttle her. Though it's iron grip was impossible to break, and within moments she was gasping and squirming helplessly as what little air remained left her lungs.

"Get…Off…Me!" She gasped as she brought her knees up to her chest and slammed them full force into the monsters stomach. Somehow even that didn't loosen it's grip. If anything it grew firmer and she noted her vision was growing dark. She had to do something, and fast!

Again she brought her feet up and kicked the creature for all the strength she had left.

Still it didn't loosen it's grip, and by now Kasumi was on the verge of blacking out. The last thing she saw was the necromorph leaning forward, it's macabre face twisting into a grin as something in her neck cracked and what little gasps of air she was able to take were finally cut off. Surprisingly she didn't feel any pain, only a cold numbness in her limbs as she finally blacked out.

* * *

A second later however her eyes flickered open again and she winced as a dozen various aches and pains suddenly washed over her, most notably was her arm, which she noted didn't respond. As her eyes focused she noted several bright, dazzling lights glaring back at her. However that was the least of her worries.

As her mind shook off the haze that accompanied waking, she remembered what had knocked her out in the first place, and instinctively tried to move and fight again. Her limbs lacked the energy to do very much however. And a moment later she felt a gentle hand press against her shoulder.

"Easy now. You're just going to hurt yourself." Kasumi finally paused as someone spoke. Her eyes shifted slightly to one side, and she met the reassuring but concerned gaze of doctor Chakwas.

Finally the thief breathed a sigh of relief as she noted the doctor was quickly discarding a needle of description. Clearly it had been one hell of a draem, or something. "Good to see you're still breathing. You had us worried for a while there."


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

"Done!" Hammond's gaze snapped back to Mordin as he spun on his heel and proudly displayed a vial of, something. He wasn't even sure what it was, or even the colour as it seemed to shift and change as the light danced off the contents. "Would, prefer to test but. Short on time, nothing to test with either…Will have to hope for the best when the time comes."

The soldier nodded slightly, before waving towards the door. "Then let's get moving. Shepard's going to need that…Stuff before long. Best not to keep her waiting." With a nod, the salarian swiftly tucked the vial into a secure pouch in his suit and snatched up his plasma cutter from the table.

Now all they had to do was get back to the tram, get to hydroponics and kill the thing residing there. While dealing with whatever was between them and said goal.

"Easier said then done." Hammond commented as he replaced the clip in his rifle.

* * *

"How many is that?" Shepard asked as she nudged the now dead wheezer onto it's back and brought her rifle up. When it didn't move however the commander relaxed her grip.

"That makes three." Garrus replied as he briefly checked the screen over his eye. "How many more of these things are there? It's going to kill us for sure if we don't restore the air quality soon." With each one of the necromorphs they killed, the air was becoming easier to breath. But it was also still toxic, and the longer they took the closer they came to suffering permanent damage from the tainted air.

"It doesn't matter. We can't give up until these things are dead. Or we die trying." Jacob added abruptly. Shepard spared him a glance, before focusing back on the dead necromorph at her feet. Not exactly the way she'd have said it. But it was the truth.

"Come on, the longer we linger here the less breathable air we have to deal with the rest of these guys." Melina made a slight gesture to the door before leading the way back out into the corridor.

As much as she hated to admit it, Shepard was beginning to miss the early blood stained halls that they'd run through upon first arriving aboard the Ishimura. The constant, dull steel grey corridors were starting to unnerve her. Occasionally they ran into a different room or hallway, but the overall ship lacked decorations.

The commander swiftly banished the thought with a sigh. This was hardly the time to be complaining about the decorations. They had bigger things to worry about. As was evidenced by the dull thumping in the air vents that crisscrossed above their heads.

Naturally everyone's respective weapons snapped to their shoulders and were directed upwards as they followed the sound. "You'd think they'd learn to give up." Garrus growled as he tapped his line rifle, he was eager to try it out. But he wasn't sure exactly what the weapon did at this point. Though he was quite eager to find out.

The clanging grew closer, and all three tensed, ready to fire as it came to a halt in the vent right above them. However a moment later it swiftly crawled off around the corner and into the distance.

A full minute passed before they finally lowered their weapons and continued onwards, though from then on, at least one of them was watching the ceiling intently.

* * *

Isaac didn't pay attention to anything aside from the corridor in front of him as he jogged past random doors and windows looking over the cold expanse of space and the comm. tower in turn.

Luckily the second cannon weren't far from his, and it took only a few moments to reach it. Skidding to a halt he realized with mounting dread that blood stained the floor and walls leading up to it. His hands tightened around his plasma cutter as he crept forward at a slower pace.

Inching around the final corner, the engineer brought his weapon up and scanned the corridor. Nothing but a blank empty corridor. "What's the big emergency then?" he whispered under his breath before continuing towards the cannon control room. Maybe Tali was injured and it wasn't more necromorphs.

His free hand struck the panel and the door opened with a dull hiss. Again he brought his cutter up and scanned the area. The first thing he noted was the cannon itself. Somehow it had exploded; probably much like his had done, and as a result had been reduced to nothing more then molten slag.

That verified his suspicion that Tali was injured. Though as his gaze swept the room, he noted one very important detail.

Tali and Thane weren't here…

* * *

With a loud growl the brute's fists slammed into the ground and buckled the deck. Luckily it's target, Zaeed had moved a second before and was already out of reach. Though the resulting shockwave from the impact did cause him to stumble.

"Come on you ugly son of a bitch. Just you and me now." The mercenary growled as he snatched up his flamethrower and brought it around to focus on the necromorph. Without pause he thumbed the trigger and doused it with flames once again.

Naturally it howled in pain, though didn't seem hindered by the fact that its skin was literally melting as a result from the flames. "What does it take to put you down?" Zaeed snapped as it lashed out with one arm and missed his face by inches, the rush of air that followed enough to knock him back a pace.

If the creature was capable of responding, it didn't bother as it continued its relentless advance, every time he tried to burn it, the necromorph just pushed on through the flames and kept swinging.

Dodging another wild swing, he wasn't surprised when he pressed the trigger and, instead of being rewarded with super heated flames, he heard a dull click. Out of fuel.

Without pause he tossed the now useless weapon aside and made to grab the assault rifle off his back. In the process his attention wavered. And he received a right hook from the brute as punishment.

Something cracked as the massive fist struck his ribs. And a second later he was sent tumbling across the deck. The faint clattering of his assault rifle accompanied the human's as it came to rest a few feet out of reach.

"That…The best…You got?" Zaeed said as he stumbled back to his feet. It didn't take a medic to know he'd broken something, but honestly he'd suffered much, much worse then a couple of broken ribs.

The brute offered another snarl in response before breaking into a charge straight for him. Despite his injures the mercenary easily rolled out of the way and collected his gun in the process. A loud resounding bang followed as the necromorph crashed into the wall and stumbled about as it tried to regain its bearings.

Zaeed recovered first however and his rifle snapped up to his shoulder, a rapid burst of fire caught the disoriented brute in the back. This time it did howl in pain. A smirk formed as it turned to face its attacker. "Sounds like I hit a nerve." He stated smugly as it glared at him.

In response it swiftly picked up one of the few tanks they hadn't already destroyed and threw it at Zaeed, whom was forced to stumble to one side to avoid being crushed. Another burst from his rifle struck the necromorph, though due to it facing him the bullets simply bounced off its armoured arms and shoulders. Even as he fired again, it began to advance on him once again.

A loud click signaled the end of the barrage, and as soon as the brute noticed the lack of bullets hitting it. It roared and broke into a blind charge straight for the mercenary. Who swiftly dropped the spent clip from his assault rifle and did his best to replace it.

Naturally he waited until the last second again, before dodging to one side to avoid the brute. This time it was smart enough to halt before slamming into the wall.

Zaeed didn't wait for it to focus on him again; instead he put as much distance between himself and it as possible. The sudden retreat was revealed as a loud beeping filled the room.

A second later the grenade he stuck to the brutes back as he leapt aside detonated. The necromorph let forth a savage howl as it collapsed. "About time…" Zaeed spat as he finished loading his rifle and turned away from the unmoving monster.

Naturally he was surprised when a low growl brought his attention back to the brute, which was already dragging itself back upright. "You gotta be kidding me." He commented, disbelief edging his words as it shook itself like a dog and scattered pieces of debris and blood everywhere, before focusing solely on him once again.

"I'm beginning to lose my patience with you. Just die already!" Zaeed snapped as he readied his rifle to start firing once again. Naturally the brute didn't fear getting shot, and started to rush towards him once again.

It was obvious the necromorph wasn't the most intelligent creature. After all despite having just been blow up due to a blind charge, it broke into one yet again. And as per last time Zaeed readied himself to leap to one side.

Just as it closed the gap, and he leapt aside however. One of its arms lashed out and struck him hard in the stomach. As a result he was sent stumbling backwards and eventually collapsed to the floor gasping for breath.

"Clever…Bastard." He managed to say between coughs as he fought to regain his breath. Of course he'd taken the constant mad charging for granted, and it had used that to its advantage.

As Zaeed fought to get back to his feet, the brute took it's time to close in. Try as he might the mercenary couldn't even lift his assault rifle to shoot. The blow having taken a lot out of him.

"Hey, over here you ugly fucker!" Just before the necromorph brought it's fist crashing down on the injured mercenary's head. A loud voice caught it's, and it's victims attention.

A second later a chunk of deck that it had thrown earlier –and now bathed in a dark blue light- crashed into it and sent it crashing to the deck a second time.

Before it could throw off the debris and stand up again. Jack shifted out of her hiding spot and offered a hand to Zaeed. "Figured you could use a hand." She muttered, before with a surprising show of strength, singlehandedly hauled him back to his feet.

"How long have you been here?" Zaeed growled, though regardless he offered a slight nod to show he was greatful for the help.

"Just arrived." Jack responded as she focused on the necromorph. Despite the chunk of metal that had just slammed into it. The brute was  _still_ moving.

"Where…On second thought I don't want to know." Zaeed waved off his own question before shakily snatching up his assault rifle. "This bloody thing doesn't know when to quit."

"I got an idea…" The biotic offered a rather, unsettling smile. Before her companion could question the comment, she dodged to one side as the same chunk of metal she'd used to attack it, came flying back at her. And crashed across the deck.

Zaeed didn't bother question her further, instead favouring to just get moving again as it fixed it's sights firmly on him.

* * *

"Alright, we've killed four of these things so far, and nothings tried to stop us…I hate to sound paranoid. But I'm starting to think were being led into a trap." Garrus commented as yet another of the air polluting necromorphs was cut down.

"I was thinking the same thing. But while our lucks good, let's not worry about it. Chances are their just busy doing…Whatever those, creatures do when their not killing people." Shepard commented as she opened the door and led the way back into the corridor. So far they'd been slowly making their way through the corridors, though only these, wheezing creatures that corrupted the air had come across their path. It was almost unnerving.

Every time they moved however, the dull clanging of something in the vents followed and eventually overtook them. Clearly they were being followed, but whatever it was didn't appear interested in attacking just yet.

That was probably the most unsettling thing about the situation, not the toxic air, nor the fact that they were being followed. But the fact that the, necromorphs as they'd been dubbed, were smart enough not to rush blindly into their guns.

They were learning. They were getting smarter.

Ordinarily Shepard would have laughed the concept off. Though with each passing minute, the growling monsters that dogged their steps refused to close the gap or even reveal themselves. No one risked dropping their guard.

Jacob was the first to break the brief, uneasy silence as a coughing fit wracked his body. Melina spared a glance, before receiving a nod and focusing back on the corridor ahead. They weren't holding up so well with the toxic air. Jacob especially seemed to be suffering.

The only explanation Shepard had was that, Garrus was an alien, and probably less susceptible to the poison, and she had been altered by Cerberus, likely to resist stuff like this. Jacob though was one hundred percent human.

The commander bit her lip as she turned another corridor; a part of her was tempted to order him to double back. She didn't fancy anyone chocking to death in this twisted maze. Though sending him back alone with those things around every corner…

"You okay commander?" Shepard almost jumped as a taloned hand came to rest on her shoulder, her head snapped around to focus on it's owner, and met Garrus' concerned gaze.

"Yeah…I'm fine." She lied, before reluctantly pulling away from the turian and setting off once again. "Were getting close to another one of those things I think."

Or so she hoped anyway.

* * *

Isaac cursed under his breath as he tried and failed for a third time to contact Tali and Thane. It was almost unnerving to say the least. How could they just up and vanish?

Doubling back he set off towards the elevator once again. "Kendra, any luck contacting the Valor?" He asked as his gaze snapped to the window as he passed it, the creature was gone. Hopefully dislodged and crushed by an asteroid.

"Kendra?"

A hand idly tapped the side of his helmet, was his comm. malfunctioning?

" _Isaac! Isaac where are you?"_  The engineer halted, eyes widening as he recognized the voice, it was a woman's, but it wasn't Kendra.  _"It's me, Nichole!"_

"Nichole?" He noted his voice suddenly sounded distant and weak. "Nichole where are you?" Static greeted his words, and his subsequent attempts yielded the same result. "Damn it!" Isaac wasn't normally one to let emotions get the best of him. Though this time his fist slammed into the window he'd staring out of hard enough to crack the glass. She was alive! how he didn't know, nor did he care. Suddenly his missing friends were forgotten as a more important goal sprung into his mind.

"Kendra, can you track that transmission and find out where it came from?" Somehow he knew she was listening.

"Isaac…What transmission?"

* * *

Shepard tapped the panel and waited as the door cycled open. The air was growing unbreathable, which meant another of those things was right up ahead. Though as the holo panel unlocked the door, she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.

She wasn't one for paranoia, but since arriving on the ship her instincts hadn't been wrong.

"Get ready." Shepard warned as she shouldered her rifle. Just in time as the door finally opened with a dull hiss.

Sitting in the middle of the room was their target, another wheezer. The creature's head snapped up to regard them, though it didn't move, just like all the others. Melina however, narrowed her eyes as she examined the room.

It was almost pitch black, the only light that worked being the one directly above the necromorph. The rest of the room was bathed in darkness, though on the edge of the light's illumination she could just make out pillars that blocked their vision further.

"Easy kill…" Shepard muttered as she slowly advanced into the room, gaze and weapon firmly locked onto the creature she could see. However with each step, the dull ring of her boots on metal greeted her and nothing else. The room was silent.

It would have been easy to just shoot the wheezer from the door and walk away, though the commander, and in turn her squad chose to advance into the room. Had Shepard thought it through, she'd have noted how, unlike her that was. The place was a perfect ambush spot and she was walking right into it.

Despite her mind protesting, she inched forwards until she was only a few steps from the necromorph in front of her. Without hesitation she brought her rifle up and aimed squarely at its head.

" _No! It's a trap, get away!"_  Shepard jumped back a step as a voice abruptly cut into her thoughts. Despite not knowing who spoke, the urgency of the warning was enough for her. "Fall back. Fall back!" She shouted, already spinning around to retreat herself.

However the warning it seemed came too late, as the door abruptly slammed closed, a series of clicks followed. And a second later the panel flashed red. "Damn it!" Spinning around, Shepard tried to kill the necromorph again, after all if they were stuck then they couldn't have it polluting the air.

Before she could pull the trigger however, something burst from the shadows and slammed into her side and sent her crashing to the deck. Melina barely had enough time to register her rifle was no longer in hand before something struck the side of her helmet hard enough to send it backwards into the pillar she'd come to rest against.

A groan escaped her as she brought her hands up to protect against another blow, though she was to slow as whatever it was grabbed her numb arm and tossed her clean across the room and crashing into a second pillar, this time she heard something crack. Though was only mildly relieved to feel pieces of metal pinging off her armour.

Over the ringing in her ears she could just pick up on the muffled booming of rifle fire and the whine of whatever it was that Garrus was using. However aside from a few muzzle flashes she couldn't see what was happening. As a moment later the necromorph that had been throwing her about loomed over her and obscured her vision.

Tilting her head back, Shepard did her best to study the monster through her now cracked and blooded visor. It was human at one point. Though now she noted it's chest had been ripped open and its insides were on full display, a grisly sight that would have made her stomach turn had it been any other point in time.

Its jaw too was completely missing, and with most of its skin having been removed or hanging like tattered clothing on it's bones gave it a almost skeleton like appearance. Despite it's lack of flesh and muscle however, it easily grabbed her by the throat and hauled her upright with one hand. Without pause it slammed her into the pillar yet again.

Stars burst before her vision. She could tell by the hunger filled gaze that having her head dashed against the pillar was probably the more, humane way to go. Before it could act again however, the same whine she'd dimly heard earlier sounded, and a flash of light sliced through the creatures arm. It took a few heartbeats before the now severed limb fell to the floor, and Shepard collapsed along with it.

The necromorph howled with what sounded like rage, before focusing solely on Melina once again. Clearly it wanted her dead and nothing was going to stop it. "Get away from her!" She shifted her gaze slightly as a blurry figure rushed forwards and slammed his weapon into the creature's head. A loud crack of bones breaking followed.

Though instead of dropping the thing whipped around and smashed its remaining arm hard into the figures head in return and knocked him to the ground. This however gave Shepard enough time to draw her pistol and shakily lift it with one hand.

"Go, to hell." She coughed as her finger tightened on the trigger, it didn't escape her that she could taste blood. The loud boom of her sidearm was followed by three more as she emptied what few bullets she had left and finally exhausted the thermal clip.

One of the rounds struck the necromorphs exposed lungs and again Shepard fought the urgh to throw up as it abruptly exploded in a shower of sickly yellow fluid. A good amount of which ended up on her armour and visor.

Thankfully the necromorph collapsed into a heap next to her and ceased moving. Shepard's sigh of relief however was cut short as an ominous hissing sound filled her ears.

* * *

Garrus shook his head as he picked himself up from the floor Damn that, thing that had been bashing Shepard around could hit hard. Snatching up his line rifle the turian hissed as a sharp pain lashed through his skull. The damn thing had struck him in a awkward place and now his head was ringing as a result. But at least he was on his feet, and judging by the mess on the floor the necromorph was dealt with.

Sparing a brief glance about the room, he spotted Shepard slumped against the pillar the necromorph had pinned her against, he couldn't seen much of her face through the blood and bile soaked visor, but he guessed she by her movements that she was eying the sick looking stuff it that passed for the monsters blood.

Jacob was midway through reloading his weapon and in turn studying the now dead wheezer at his feet. Already the air was being vented and replaced, they could breath easy now. And with the necromorphs dead they were safe for the moment.

That illusion was shattered as he heard a gasp, followed by a loud scream. Garrus and Jacob whipped around to focus on Shepard as she stopped eying her hands and began clawing at her helmet as though it was suddenly a necromorph as well.

Initially the pair was stunned and immobile, having no idea what was happening. Though the turian pieced it together first as he noted the dead creature next to her, and the floor wherever it's yellowish blood had landed had coils of steam rising off it.

Without pause he leapt forward and tried to help pry Shepard's helmet off. "Acid blood, as if these guys weren't bad enough already!"

* * *

With two of them facing it. The brute was now a much more manageable adversary. Though even still Zaeed and Jack were hard pressed to do any real harm to the hulking creature.

At least now when it grew angry and started throwing things it had to decide between two targets, rather then just throwing everything it had at Zaeed. Though it still favoured him above all else.

"So what exactly is you're plan? I don't think were going to tire him out." He finally asked as they ducked behind one of the few remaining tanks in the room to reload their respective weapons.

"Easy. Get the fucker near the window over there, and smash it." She nodded to a window only a few feet away from them and briefly spared the mercenary a "Like it wasn't obvious" look. He offered a slight growl in response.

"And what if he's too big? He looks like he weights a tone, the vacuum might not be enough to suck him out into space."

"Then we'll just have to find another way won't we? Or more likely die trying." Zaeed didn't find a reason to argue with that. After all if they couldn't kill it, then they had to get rid of it. If they couldn't do that, then they were as good as dead anyway.

A loud roar signalled the brute had lost it's patience, and sure enough a loud crash followed by them diving to one side signalled a rain of glass as the tank was shattered under its massive fists.

"Go! Lure him to the window!" Jack called out as a dark blue glow enveloped her. A second later she loosed a bolt of biotic energy towards the necromorph. As they'd established over the past few minutes however, the biotic blast simply knocked it about but didn't stop it for more then a second or two.

As it snapped around to focus on Jack, a burst of pistol fire caught it's attention. And forced it's gaze back onto Zaeed. For a brief moment it stood in place, head swivelling back and forth between the two as it tried to decide which was a better target.

In the end it broke into a charge towards the mercenry. Likely choosing him out of some form of hatred given he had kept it trapped here for so long. Luckily it was unawares that this was exactly what they wanted.

As per usual Zaeed kept shooting until it was almost upon him, then leapt aside without difficulty. And yet again the brute couldn't stop in time, rage having overridden whatever sense of stratagey the creature had. And it promptly slammed head first into the window. Somehow it didn't shatter on impact, rather it only cracked and weakened.

As the brute shook off it's disorientation however, Jack took the opportunity to use her biotics once again. Another bolt of energy arched towards the necromorph, though instead of hitting it, the blast struck the window instead.

The window shattered, and naturally all the air was sucked out of the room and into space. Along with everything that wasn't nailed down well enough.

The brute was slowly being tugged towards the window. Though Jack and Zaeed, luckily were kept in place by the gravity stabilizers in their boots.

The necromorph naturally didn't just give up and die however. Its massive hands dug into the remains of the deck and very slowly, it began to pull its way forward an inch at a time. Already the emergency shutters were closing, their window –pun not intended- was narrowing.

"Damn it, we have to do something!" Zaeed snapped as he brought his pistol to bear once again. Despite the bullets hitting it, the creature didn't seem to care.

"Lets try something a little bigger." Jack growled as her biotics flared one final time. It was obvious to both of them that she was tired from using her skills constantly. Though that didn't stop her from unhinging the final tank in the room. "Eat this you ugly bastard." She snarled, before throwing it.

The tank met the brute head on, and with a loud howl of rage and pain it finally let go of the deck. And a moment later the force of the vacuum got the best of it and dragged the necromorph out into space. A second later the shutters slammed closed and the few objects that hadn't been removed clattered to the floor, along with a very exhausted Jack.

"Thought I'd never see the end of him." Zaeed said with a relieved sigh, before focusing on Jack, whom had found her way into a sitting position. "You alright? Must have taken a lot out of ya."

She offered a slight glare. "I'm fine. Just need a minute." Despite the harsh edge to her words, Zaeed knew she didn't mean it, per se. She was harsh with everyone, but as she'd just proven she also had their backs when they needed her.

"At least we won't see it ever again. Nothing can breath in deep space…"

* * *

Across the ship, and oblivious to everything going on around them. Mordin and Hammond waited silently as the tram set off towards the hydroponics deck. "Are you sure this poison is going to work?" Hammond asked as he awkwardly fell into one of the seats and watched the various decks speed by through the windows.

"Of course not! To many variables. Too many, unknowns. Can only guarantee sixty-three percent chance of success. Anymore would be lie." The salarian responded in his rapid fashion as he paced back and forth. It was obvious he was waiting impatiently to field test his new project.

"You're not one for positive reinforming, are you?" Mordin halted his pacing and offered a confused glance, before nodding in understanding.

"Ah, no, lying to reassure people…Not how I work. Honesty, better then deceit. Best to know truth, not cling to false hopes." Hammond stared at the doctor for a long moment, before chuckling.

"Good, I'm not one for lying to make people feel better either." His gaze shifted back to the window as he waited for the minutes to tick by. "We should be arriving soon. Then we just need to find you're frie-" He was cut short by a loud crash in the distance. The sound of tortured metal and naturally a reverberating shockwave as something struck the ship and knocked it off its original course.

Before either could question the sudden impact, after all the ADS cannons should have dealt with any asteroids. A warning abruptly filled the tram, the lights cut out. And another crash was heard as whatever struck the ship damaged the tram system. Both occupants were sent crashing into the wall and eventually floor as the tram derailed. Neither moved after it finally came to a halt.

* * *

"Isaac...What transmission?"

Isaac's response was cut short as a loud crash rocked the ship. The screeching of metal and the reverberating bang of something striking the hull forced Isaac to instinctively clutch at his helmet in a vain attempt to cover his ears.

A moment later the entire ship was jolted as whatever hit the hull resulted in a shockwave that ripped through it. And a second later Isaac was sent tumbling across the deck as it bucked and jolted beneath his boots.

The last thing the engineer heard was someone calling his name, his mind had enough time to register that it was Nichole, before his back and head slammed into the wall and he slumped to the floor in a heap.  _"Isaac…Make us whole again…"_


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

"Alright, I think its best we don't hang around here. Who knows what else is hiding in the damn walls." Zaeed commented as he finished checking his weapons and retrieving a few scattered items he'd lost during the fight with the brute.

Jack simply offered a nod as she pushed off from the ruined tank she'd been leaning against and collected the shotgun that was resting against it. "I hear that. Fuckers have been coming out of the walls since we got here." As if expecting her comment to summon them, her gaze snapped to a vent cover in the roof. Luckily for them nothing decided to heed her summons.

"Ya know its no wonder these bastards overtook the ship. Sneaking about in the vents, no one would have seen them coming." Zaeed said quietly as he followed her gaze. "Hard to fight something when you don't even know it's there until it's to late."

"That's their problem." The biotic snapped, jolting the mercenary out of his thoughts. "Their dead were not. Let's not join them." He hesitated for a moment as he contemplated responding. Though after a moment he simply shook his head and dropped the subject. One moment she saves you're neck, and the next she says something like that. Jack was just full of surprises.

"Yeah well. The longer we stay in one place the less chance we have of finding Shepard and the others. They can't have made it to far ahead." His Omni-tool briefly lit up as he checked his mission timer. They'd been here for about fifteen minutes since flushing the necromorph out the window. Fifteen minutes to long in his mind.

Jack said nothing more, and, taking her silence as a confirmation. Zaeed led the way to the door and punched the switch to open it. "Shepard. That things taken care of. I found Jack too, where are you?" The mercenary said quietly as the door cycled open, his pistol idly snapped up as he scanned the corridor, before lowering to his side once again.

"Commander? Do you copy?"

"Forget it, comms haven't been working right since we got on the ship." Again he spared a glance towards Jack as she followed him, shotgun pointed loosely down the corridor, and he noted with only mild unease, loosely towards him as well.

"Worth a shot anyway" With a shrug he led the way down the hall. They only made it a few steps, when the same impact that had affected the rest of the crew around them, finally caught up with them.

A few scattered pieces of discarded equipment were tossed about the corridor, and in turn Jack and Zaeed were thrown about as well. Though by some miracle they were able to avoid the worst of the impact and were uninjured by the end of it.

"What…The fuck…Was that?" Jack hissed as she picked herself up off the floor and shook her head.

"Damned if I know. Felt like something hit the ship, something big."

* * *

Garrus cringed slightly as he tilted the object in his hands to better examine in. Shepard's helmet, now little more then melted metal and slag due to the acid that had eaten through it. Was a grim sight indeed.

"How bad is it?" His gaze shifted away from the helmet and to its owner as she spoke.

"Fried. No way you can use it anymore. Visor and breather are melted right through." He responded quietly, before shrugging and tossing it aside, a loud clang sounded as it hit the deck a few feet away.

"I'm not talking about the helmet." She growled, the sudden tone shift caused the turian to wince slightly. "How bad is it?" She repeated a hand gesturing to her face as she pulled herself upright, and in turn allowed the light to catch her face.

Garrus was silent for a long moment as he studied her, before shaking his head slightly. "Honestly…?" She nodded. "You're fine! Couple of marks, nothing that won't heal with time or the doc can't fix once were back on the Normandy." He offered a smile as her shoulders slumped slightly.

In truth the burns were barely noticeable, they'd gotten the helmet off just in time it seemed. "Thank god for that. I'd hate for you to start beating me in the looks department." Despite the situation they were both, Melina still got a laugh out of the hurt expression her friend displayed.

"Low blow commander." He responded, though the hurt behind his voice was shattered as a grin formed afterwards. "Besides, you said you liked it." He made a slight gesture to his own injury, which brought another weak chuckle out of the commander.

Both were cut short however as a garbled message came over the comm. What little they could hear through the static revealed it to be Zaeed. "Zaeed? You're breaking up, say again." Shepard called out as a hand jumped to her ear. "Damn it, comms are still down? I thought Isaac and Tali would have fixed that by now."

"Speaking of which…Shouldn't they have reported in by now?" Jacob pitched in, voicing the thoughts that were beginning to creep into everyone's mind.

"Let's, not jump to conclusions. Chances are it's a bigger job then we thought." Garrus offered. No one really wanted to write off their squad members as dead. But all things considered it had been a good two hours since they'd split up, surely they'd have arrived and fixed the problem by now.

"We can't help them. Were to far away and we need to focus on the remainder of these things." Shepard nodded towards the corpse a few feet away. The wheezer was thankfully one of the first things they dealt with. After all now that she didn't have her helmet there was nothing protecting her from the toxic air.

"True. Come on, we need to get moving before something else goes wron-"Naturally Jacob was cut off as a loud clang ripped through the ship and deafened the trio. Though their hearing was the last thing they had to worry about as the floor began to buck and quake beneath their feet.

Jacob instinctively grabbed the nearest support beam, luckily due to the fighting there was enough gaps and chunks missing for him to get a firm grip and hold onto.

Garrus did the same, however Shepard wasn't so lucky, caught off guard she was pitched forward and struck the floor head first, the blow alone was almost enough to knock her out, though as the impact continued to rock the ship she was sent rolling across the deck and struck the far wall, a loud bang reverberated about the room as her armour absorbed the majority of the impact.

Within a few moments however the shaking was over, and the badly beaten commander was gently hauled back to her feet by her comrades. "Alright…Were going to start trading knockouts…Garrus you're up next." She groaned as a hand moved to check her stinging forehead. Her glove came away slick with blood.

"Just a cut, nothing serious." The turian assured her as he gave the injury a once over. Sadly none of them carried medkits so she'd have to just put up with it for now.

"Alright…What the hell just happened?" She asked, her hand moving back to her forehead to apply pressure to the wound.

* * *

"Where is Isaac? He should have been here by now!" A groan escaped the engineer as a mix of pain and dizziness washed over him. He barely had time to register he was sprawled out on the floor before a loud hiss of static came over his radio and caused his pounding headache to double in intensity.

"He's not answering his radio. Damn it. I hope he's alright…" He vaguely recognized the voice as belonging to Tali. Though where exactly she was he couldn't say, his head was still spinning and even opening his eyes was proving to be a difficult undertaking.

"Right…Here." Isaac finally managed to say, his hands finally came to life and he attempted to push himself upright. This however only led to him rolling onto his back. Another flash of pain lanced up his back and neck as a result of the movement.

"Isaac…Are you alright?" Despite the pain, his head shot up as a familiar voice graced his ears, somehow the haze that clouded his mind as a result of being knocked out seemed to vanish.

"Nichole?" A newfound strength seemed to flow through him as he searched for and found a handhold in the battered wall next to him and pulled himself upright. "Nichole!" Again he glanced around and found himself alone in the corridor. "Hell…" It was reassuring despite her sudden disappearances. After all he knew she was still alive. That was enough for now.

"Isaac?" Again the engineer hesitated this time it wasn't the woman he was searching for, though just the same he was grateful to hear from her. "Thank god, for a few minutes there I thought you were dead."

"Trust me. You weren't the only one Kendra…What the hell happened? Did the ADS cannons fail?" A hand shifted to his helmet as he spoke, idly checking for damages.

"It…The Valor, something went wrong, it changed course abruptly and struck the Ishimura. I tried to warn them but no one responded." Isaac's hand dropped back to his side, and it took all of his self will power not to collapse again. "It crashed into the ship! And I can't raise anyone on the comms…I think we were to late."

Several moments passed, before the engineer let out a slow sigh. "Great. There goes our chances at rescue…Did you have any luck with the other ship. This, Normandy that the others came from?"

"No, the Valor must have damaged the communications tower when it crashed. I can't get a signal to anything outside the ship."

"Damn it…Let's hope her crew has a different means of communications…As much as I hate to admit it, their our only ticket off this thing right now." So far he hadn't found any reason to distrust the Normandy and her crew. However putting their lives in the hands of a ship and people he didn't know just didn't bode well with him.

Shaking the thought off he switched to the channel the others used, with luck if he could hear scattered reports from them, they could hear him. "Tali…Thane, this is Isaac…Where are you?"

* * *

Everything was a blur as Hammond regained conciseness. His eyes flickered open and briefly surveyed the area around him, though unfocused, he could still see several flickering patches of orange light. Fire no doubt. The smell of burning metal and plastic also aided in this realization.

It took a few minutes of blinking and sorting through his muddled thoughts to recall what had happened. Some kind of shockwave, and the tram crashing. The crash, obviously that was where he was.

Finally his senses returned to normal, and as a result he winced as a sharp pain shot up his leg as he tried to move. Several other aches and pains washed over him but his right leg was the most notable, simply because it was the most painful.

A quick glance confirmed that a large section of metal, likely plating from the tram or something similar was pinning him to the deck. He had a sneaking suspicion that the limb was broken as well. Even if he could get the rubble off, he probably wasn't going too far on his own.

A loud crash snapped him out of his thoughts. Though a quick glance around revealed nothing out of place initially. Despite the lack of any obvious sign of danger. Hammond swiftly set to work trying to lift the piece of metal off his leg. After all, there was a good chance the necromorphs had shown up and started searching the wreckage, if they hadn't already then they no doubt would be soon.

As if on cue, a dull clang of something hitting the wreckage echoed through the tram tunnel. A growl swiftly followed by the ringing of feet on metal signalled the necromorph coming closer.

Unable to move, Hammond focused instead on trying to find a weapon; his rifle was missing, no doubt having been lost in the crash. But he should have had a pistol. Which naturally was strapped to his leg that was pinned under the metal. "Damn it!"

With no gun to speak off, his attention shifted to finding a suitable piece of metal, something he could easily lift and swing, it wouldn't take limbs off most likely, but if he could keep the creatures from biting his face off until he could get free, then it would do it's job.

He had barely started his search, when something leapt out of the shadows and pinned him to the ground. Hammond had enough time to feel its hands clamp down on his searching arm and another on his opposite shoulder, before its mouth split open into a wide snarl and it moved to take a bite out of his face.

Out of instinct he threw his head forwards and connected with the creature's skull. A sicken crack was heard and he felt its grip loosen. Taking advantage of this he managed to yank his hand free and landed a blow to the side of the necromorphs head, which finally caused it to tumble away into the rubble next to him.

When it surfaced again, Hammond was stunned to find himself looking at a very confused and now bloodied Mordin. "Trying to help…Should have said something first perhaps?" The doctor muttered as he shook his head to clear the dizziness the blows had caused.

"What the fuck just happened?" Was all the security officer could think of to say. He hadn't imagined it, had he? "Damn I must have hit my head harder then I thought…Got me seeing things."

"Indeed, crash might have unsettled you. Whispers too might have effect, making you uneasy. Combination possibly having negative effect."

Hammond frowned slightly. "What whispers?"

"Nothing, nothing, strange noises, thought they were voices. Probably just ship systems." Mordin replied swiftly, even faster then his usual speech pattern. His companion gave him a worried glance, before deciding it was best not to argue for now.

"Alright, well let's get this thing off my leg so we can get moving again. There should be a maintenance hatch around here that'll take us through to the Hydroponics sector." Mordin offered a slight nod before moving to help move the piece of metal. He had no idea where exactly the hatch would be, but most ships had maintenance tunnels scattered about, and the tram would have been no exception.

Hammond was somewhat surprised by just how strong the salarian actually was, as within a few moments they'd shifted the rubble aside and he'd been pulled back to his feet.

Mordin insisted on checking him over when he found it difficult to put weight on the limb. "Later, if we stay here to long the necromorphs will track us down. Let's get out of here and sort it later." The doctor reluctantly agreed before wrapping one of the officer's arms around his shoulders and aiding in supporting his weight.

Luckily for them the maintenance tunnel was only a short distance away. Though how far they were from Hydroponics was anyone's guess.

* * *

Once the group had recovered from the crash, Shepard once again took the lead and set off throughout the corridors, Garrus and Jacob falling into step behind her once again.

"We'll have to be more careful now. Without you're helmet, one wrong turn and we could wind up in a depressurized room and it'll all be over. "The turian commented grimly, concern laced his words, though as per usual Shepard waved it off with a dismissive hand.

"Don't worry about me. We can probably scavenge some spare zero G suits as we go. I highly doubt a ship this size would be without them." Melina responded, she cared little for her own well being. Getting the mission done and getting everyone else back to the ship in one piece was her only goal at this point.

The thoughts had barely entered her head, when a burst of static made her instinctively wince and reach for her ear. Before she could speak, a voice cut through the static, a chilling voice that she didn't recognize, but still succeeded in chilling her when she heard it.  _"Their all dead…All of them! You've got to fix it! Make us whole again. It's the only way to make things right."_

"What? Who is this?" She responded, her gaze briefly shifting to Garrus and Jacob to see if they recognized who it was. Instead she found them giving her very confused stares.

"Something wrong commander?" Jacob asked as the radio dissolved to static and finally cut out.

"Uh…Interference or something I guess…" She muttered hastily, before shaking her head and setting off once again. Something was really off about this place. Or maybe she'd taken one too many knocks to the head…

After all that was the second time she'd heard a voice, and no one else had, surely it was just paranoia or something. Or at least that's how she decided to look at it for now.

"You hear that?" Shepard snapped around as Jacob disturbed her thoughts; his rifle was aimed uneasily towards a door they'd just passed. "Sounds like someone's crying." Both the commander and Garrus frowned.

"I didn't hear anything." The turian commented, Shepard simply shook her head.

The soldier seemed set to argue with them, though after a moment he relaxed and simply shook his head. "Uh…Yeah, maybe I'm just hearing things…Must be the lack of sleep talking."

The trio set off once again, though as they moved Shepard idly checked her mission timer. They'd only been here for about seven hours, so unless the timer had malfunctioned at some point, chances are they weren't exhausted yet. Plus she didn't feel tired, but she did get a involuntary nap thanks to the brute.

"Yeah…We haven't had a chance to relax in hours."

" _He's going to snap soon…Watch you're back."_  The same chilling voice droned into her ear, Shepard simply shook her head in a vain attempt to banish it. "Get out of my head." She hissed under her breath, a sudden temptation flared up to pound her forehead into the wall to silence the voices. Though she resisted the notion for now. Cracking her skull wasn't going to help anyone.

"Urgh…We must be getting close." Shepard coughed as she turned a corner, the air quality abruptly turning sickly and resulted in her lungs burning as with every inhale. It had been bad before, but out of nowhere it suddenly grew unbearable.

And without her helmet filter anymore, there was nothing stopping it from invading her lungs directly…

* * *

Isaac waited for several long moments after trying to raise Tali and Thane on the comm. With each passing second his anxiety continued to grow. "Come on; come on where are you two?" He said quietly, it was bad enough they'd up and vanished but now they weren't answering the radio.

Finally the headache inducing static broke and gave way to a familiar voice. "Isaac? Isaac is that you? There's a lot of interference!"

"Tali! Where are you? I'm still down by the cannons." He briefly considered mentioning the part about meeting them there, but chose not to for now. After all finding them was more important then finding out why they abandoned him, at least right now.

"We had to fall back. Those things attacked us and we were forced back to the elevator…Were a floor above you." Isaac nodded slightly as he snatched his plasma cutter up from the ground and started off towards the lift.

"Alright, sit tight I'll be there soon."

"Got it, but you'd better hurry, I think more of them are on the way." Tali had barely finished speaking when the sound of screeching metal burst through the comm. A moment later the sound of gunfire followed it.

"Tali? Tali!" Without pause he broke into a sprint for the elevator. He didn't even stop to wonder why the necromorphs had gone for them and left him alone. For now he focused solely on getting to the lift. Luckily it was only a couple of turns away and a moment later the engineer was punching the button to call it.

Finally the door opened. And Isaac darted inside and hit the button for the next floor up. Even before it reached the floor, he could hear the faint cracking of gunfire. By the time the doors opened again however it had abruptly stopped.

"Tali! Thane!" Isaac's voice echoed off the walls, but no response came. Instead of rushing into the dark halls however in search of his missing friends he slowly stepped out of the lift, the flashlight on his cutter snapping on as he swept the corridor before inching carefully forwards.

It was anyone's guess where they actually were; there were a handful of supply rooms on this deck. Not to mention several corridors leading to the rest of the ship. "Tali, Thane?" he called out again, this time a dull clang sounded from the hallway ahead, and imitatively his cutter snapped up and focused on the direction.

Slowly he closed in on the source of the noise. It took him several moments to realize he was stepping over the corpses of dismembered necromorphs. Though as realization set in, his hope of finding the missing Normandy crew members grew. After all there had to be a good eight or nine corpses scattered about. Perhaps they'd holed up and were safe and sound.

Another clang caused him to snap around, this time it had come from a different direction, namely behind him. Isaac didn't bother turning around, instead he kept moving forwards, his ears straining to pick up on any noise incase whatever was lurking about decided to have a shot at him as well.

Following the trail of corpses. His path ended at the door of a supply room. Blood stained the walls and door itself and he noted the door panel was glowing orange, locked.

Naturally this was all part of the job and the engineer set to work. Thankfully this one wasn't in complete lockdown and it only took a few seconds to override.

"Let's just hope this wasn't locked to keep something in." He muttered quietly as he tapped the open button and stepped back, his cutter rising in preparation to strike. Finally it slid open. When nothing leapt out of the shadows he breathed a relieved sigh and began to creep forwards. "Tali? Thane?" He whispered, though his voice still seemed to carry and echo in the silent corridor.

In response a flashlight snapped on and blinded the engineer. Out of instinct he shifted to one side and brought a hand up to shield his eyes, even with his helmet the light was unbearable. "Isaac? Keelah its good to see you!"

Finally the light was directed elsewhere and he lowered his hand. Tali and Thane were present and accounted for, though he noted the drell had blood staining his chest and shoulder. The opposite hand was pressed tightly to the bloodied area. "Yeah, I was beginning to think you guys had abandoned me." Isaac responded calmly.

"We didn't have a lot of choice." Tali said hastily as the pair abandoned the corridor and stepped into the corridor. Both spared a glance either way, and despite himself Isaac, felt his grip on his cutter tightening. "After that crash…We were ambushed and had to retreat. We thought for sure when we couldn't contact you that we'd lost you down there."

The engineer nodded slightly. "I didn't see anything down there, no bodies, nothing…" He saw Tali shift slightly, he couldn't read her face but he had a feeling by her stance that she was growing defensive. "It seems they backed off as well, maybe their retrieving the corpses and reviving them or something." He didn't really believe that, but the last thing they needed was to start arguing and wind up offing each other.

Thankfully Tali seemed to accept this as she visible relaxed. "It's possible. As you can see they attacked us up here as well. Thane was hit but were doing okay otherwise."

"Well we can probably find some medical supplies around here some-" The conversation was abruptly ended as a loud bang brought their gaze around to focus on the supply room they'd just vacated.

Similar noises sounded on the corridor either side as well. And before anyone could react a necromorph leapt out of the darkened room and made a wild swing at Tali. Isaac was faster however and just before the blow landed a cutter round sliced the limb off at the shoulder and it dropped harmlessly to the ground.

Two more shots put it down for good and removed a leg at the same time. Although he knew more were likely on the way. He couldn't help but spare a glance towards the corpse at their feet.

Unlike all the others that wore tattered engineering rigs, lab coats or civilian clothing. This one was wearing amour similar to Hammond; it was ripped and torn in places, likely from whatever killed him. But for the most part the combat amour was still in place. Wait a minute…As far as he knew their were no soldiers on board, only security personal at best.

Which could only mean two things. Either the Ishimura had marines on board for some strange reason. Or the necromorphs had already started making use of the Valor's crew.

"Shit! We have to move, now!" He shouted, causing both of his companions to jump. If that was the case then they needed to warn the rest of the crew, this situation just got a whole lot worse.

"No time!" Tali responded as another landed in a crouch in the middle of the supply room.

Issac brought his cutter up to fire. However no sooner had he pulled the trigger, then the necromorph was on him, a clawed hand on his throat and a talon swiping dangerously close to his face.

"Fuck!" How did it move so fast! There was a good six foot gap and it cleared it in one step!

A shotgun blast knocked it off balance, a second put it down. "What the hell? How did it move so fast I didn't even see it!" Isaac simply shook his head in response to Tali's question.

"I don-"Before he could finish another necromorph shambled into view. This one was thin but tall, almost skeletonlike but twice the height of anyone in the squad. An ear splitting screech escaped it as it broke into a run straight for the group. Luckily it wasn't as lightening fast as the last one and they had time to gun it down.

Before it even hit the ground however, a stray shot knocked its head clean off and a second severed its arm. However even with these injures it continued to crawl forwards.

"Just, fucking, die!" Isaac snarled as he stepped forward and brought his boot down on its spine, each word was punctuated by a sicken crack as he stomped it into the deck. These things just didn't quit!

However before he could even confirm the beast was dead, another marine rounded the corner and leapt forwards. Once again Isaac made an attempt to move, and it abruptly just, appeared in front of him and lashed out.

A cry of pain escaped him as its bladed arm struck his shoulder, thankfully the worst of the blow was absorbed by the plating of his rig, but the pain was still there. Stumbling back Isaac delivered a sharp kick to its midsection and sent it crashing back to the deck.

"Where are they even co-guh!" Once again he was cut off as, shockingly enough the previous necromorphs severed head suddenly blocked his view, and a heartbeat later he felt something constrict around his neck and cut off his breathing.

A single gunshot broke the silence and with a shriek the head exploded, splattering blood and god knew what else all over his visor. "Urgh." The constant booming of gunshots stopped him from relaxing. And he swiftly wiped his visor off before sparing a glance about the corridor.

They were coming from everywhere! Tali was busy holding the other hallway, her shotgun making short work of anything that got to close. And Thane was helping whichever of them needed it the most while taking the opportunity to try and lock down the supply room in hopes of stopping them from attacking from that angle as well.

"We can't stop them all! We need to fall back to somewhere more defendable!" Tali said as she paused to reload. Finally her end was quiet, however Isaac was still busy trying to deal with the marine that seemed to be teleporting.

Every time he lined up a shot, the thing would nimbly dodge to one side. As soon as his weapon clicked empty it leapt forwards unfortunately for it, it didn't get a chance to slice him open as it had planned. As the now empty plasma cutter struck it square in the face. Despite an obviously broken nose as a result, it simply snarled and continued trying to take a bite out of Isaacs's neck. With no ammo he simply continued bashing it in the face until it let go. Then a swift kick to the chest put it down long enough for him reload.

"Tali's right. We have to get out of here. If we can get back to the elevator we can get head through the airlock and cut them off!" He said between sharp pants as he fought to regain his breath.

"Its better then nothing. Come on!" Tali shouted as she gunned down the final necromorph and broke into a sprint back towards the elevator. Thane was quick to follow. Isaac however paused to finish off the former marine before he moved to follow.

They'd only made it a few steps when a loud roar caused the entire deck to tremble beneath them. The engineer stumbled but kept running, however even as the doors to the elevator opened and Tali stumbled inside. At the last moment however something abruptly slid into the corridor ahead of them and forced Isaac and Thane to halt.

"Oh come on!" The engineer snarled as he brought his cutter up in preparation fight back, however the massive tentacle like creature focused on Thane instead. And despite the assassin's lighting fast reflexes. It easily wrapped itself around his legs and yanked him off his feet. Before anyone could react it began retreating back the way it had come from, and Thane was being dragged along with it.

"Thane!" Isaac broke into a sprint after the creature, though by the time he'd reached the corner it was already out of sight, and he was forced to simply follow the scattered gunfire as his friend tried to pry the thing loose.

As he followed the source of the sound he could hear the dull ringing of steps behind him. He really hoped that was Tali…


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

Isaac had lost track of how long they'd been chasing Thane, or more accurately the monster that dragged him off. Though the search was proving futile, the creature was faster then him and Tail, and it had long since vanished from sight, dragging its victim into whatever hell awaited him.

After what felt like hours, the engineer finally turned another corner, and found no sign at all of the tentacle, or Thane. He didn't stop however; instead he kept running, searching left and right for any indication of where it had gone.

He halted at last upon reaching the end of the corridor. It split and went in two different directions. And neither held any obvious sign of the creature having gone that way.

Behind him, he was aware of the sound of footsteps coming closer, though he didn't turn, instead his gaze continued to snap back and forth between the two paths. "Damn it!" He cursed, there was no way they could follow the creature now…

"We-We lost him?" He heard Tali ask, her voice laced with concern as she caught her breath. Despite himself, Isaac cringed at the tone.

"I don't know which way they went…And splitting up would just get us killed." He stated, not directly answering her question, but in turn confirming her fears at the same time.

"We can't just let that thing drag him off!" The quarian said, before she could continue however, the engineer spun on his heel.

"If you have any ideas, then speak up! I don't know where that thing dragged Thane off too!" He snapped, the harsh voice caused Tali to jolt slightly. Isaac however seemed even more surprised. "I…I don't know which way it went. We'd just get ourselves killed if we tried to follow it..." He continued his voice softer then before. He was likely more shocked then his companion by the sudden rush of anger that had prompted his initial response.

Tali was silent for a long moment, and not for the first time the engineer cursed the mask she wore, he couldn't read her expression, or even really see her save for the odd glowing eyes. He knew she had the same problem with him; more so given his eyes were covered as well. But that didn't quell his frustration on the matter.

After a long, tense moment of silence, Tali finally nodded. "That's, true…We wouldn't do anyone any good by running around randomly..." Isaac could pick up on the defeated tone behind her words. She hated the idea of leaving Thane to die, though they had to think of their own well being above his right now, as much as the human hated to say it.

"Come on. We need to retrace our steps and get back to the airlock. With luck you're friend will be waiting for us." He put on a false, hopeful tone, which seemed to brighten the quarian up a little, but both knew that was extremely unlikely.

"Yeah…Lets hope…"

* * *

Shepard barely suppressed another coughing fit as she pressed her shoulder to the wall. "This has-has got to be the place." She commented, another cough breaking up her words. They'd been searching for a good twenty minutes now, with no sense of direction aboard the ship they had little idea as to whether this was another part of the ship, or whether they'd just wound up back where they'd started.

Garrus and Jacob soon took up position next to her, and on the other side of the door respectively "Lets hope, we can't keep this up much longer." Garrus responded as he checked the ammo counter on the odd weapon he'd acquired. Melina frowned at the choice of words. The only one really suffering at this point was her, without her helmet she was slowly being choked to death by the toxic air.

She didn't say this though, instead offering a slight nod, before extending a hand and tapping the holopanel to unlock the door. A second later it slid open with a low hiss.

A heartbeat later Shepard and Jacob swept into the room, weapons raised as they scanned the area. The room was surprisingly well open, and mostly dark. The only light coming from a large window on one side, looking into another, larger part of the hydroponics deck.

And there in the center of the barren room, was their target, the same creature they'd found in the last five or six rooms, sitting almost calmly in the middle of the room, its only movement being the slow, echoing breaths it took as it slowly polluted the air.

Again Melina fought the urge to gag as the already unbearable air grew even worse then it was before. Almost instantly she felt light headed, but shook it off and focused on her target. "This should be the last one…" She said quietly, though regardless the wheezers head angled and she saw its cold, lifeless eyes fixate on them. The realization sent a chill down her spine.

"Let's kill it and get out of here." Jacob said, his rifle snapping up to his shoulder in preparation to finish the job.

He didn't get the chance to pull the trigger however.

A loud screech shattered the silence, and a second later something flashed out of the darkness. With a cry of pain the weapon slipped out of the soldiers hands and clattered to the deck.

Jacob instinctively clutched his right hand, a spike like object now impaled through it. With a yank he ripped the spike out and tossed it aside. "Ambush!" He shouted, to late.

Something small dropped from the roof and landed a short distance away. Another screech pierced the silence as the tiny object turned to face them.

Shepard, despite knowing it was a threat, felt the grip on her rifle falter as she studied the odd creature. It looked almost like a child, a horribly mutated one, but a child none the less. The commander hesitated at the sight, unsure of what she was seeing.

The tiny creature had no such reservations however, as a second later it suddenly screeched and its back burst open with a sickening crack, several tentacle like appendages bursting from its newly ripped open spine.

Shepard snapped her weapon back up, an instant to late as the tentacles lashed out, a trio of spikes firing from the tips. One bounced off her shoulder, a second struck the wall next to her head, and the third caught her in the arm.

Ignoring the pain, she pulled the trigger and easily severed the trio of flailing appendages. The creature collapsed a moment later and ceased moving.

The commander barely had time to yank the spike out of her arm, before another inhuman cry filled the room. Glancing up, she spotted another of the tiny childlike creatures clinging to the ceiling, its tentacles already exposed and poised to strike.

Gritting her teeth, Shepard's rifle snapped up to her shoulder once again a quick burst ripped one of its tentacles from its back and caused it to drop to the floor with a yelp. Before it could right itself and try to attack again, Melina easily closed the gap and gave it a hard kick that sent the creature flying, a sickening crack signalled its demise as it stuck the window hard enough to crack the glass.

"Kill that damn thing!" She snapped, briefly gesturing towards the wheezer as she scanned the ceiling again to ensure there wasn't anymore of the monsters hiding up there.

Garrus was the first to respond to her order, with a blinding flash his weapon discharged, Shepard barely had enough time to note some kind of projectile before it struck the creature and sliced it neatly in two.

"Whoa." Melina briefly glanced at the weapon Garrus was holding. "Maybe I should have grabbed one of those…" And the line rifle was supposed to be a mining tool? Clearly they were in the wrong line of work…

Pushing the thought aside, Shepard spared another glance towards the necromorph, which was no longer a problem. "Guess were done here." She said after a moment, however the air was still thick with the toxic substance and nothing was being done about it.

Several tense seconds passed in silence. No one daring to move or even breath. Still nothing. Finally Shepard was forced to break the silence as another coughing fit wracked her body, this time she ended up sinking to one knee, a hand shifting to support her as it subsided, leaving her gasping. She'd been holding up well so far, mostly due to her own stubbornness. But even she had limits.

"We need to get you out of here." She heard Garuss mutter, before a hand gently gripped her shoulder and eased her back onto her feet. "The poison these things are spreading is killing you."

Once she was upright, the turian wrapped her arm around his shoulders; he pointedly ignored the glare the commander gave him. "The filtration system isn't working…Guess were rebooting it manually…Anyone know how to do that?"

"We'll figure it out…For now lets get out of here." Jacob waved towards the door, before he started to inch backwards. "Were not going to do any good standing around here."

"Get…Kendra on the comm. She'll know what to do." Shepard managed to say between gasps for breath. She knew the radio hadn't been working right since they'd gotten aboard the ship, but now and again things seemed to work, so it was worth a shot.

Jacob nodded, a hand already jumping to his ear as he opened a frequency. After a few moments of silence, Shepard swiftly did the same, mostly to hear what was being said.

"Kendra, we've neutralized the necromorphs on this deck. But the air is still polluted." He said as they started making their way back through the corridors. Shepard noted wearily that her vision was starting to blur slightly around the edges and her legs weren't responding to well, Garrus was starting to carry her more and more with each passing minute.

She heard Kendra's response, though it seemed distant, vague. Melina shook her head slightly to try and clear her senses, but it only seemed to make things worse. " Looks like the air filtration system is offline…You'll have to reboot it manually."

"And how do we do that?" Jacob asked, his rifle coming up in a one handed grip as a loud clang echoed off the walls from further down the hallway. After a few moments of silence, the squad started moving again.

"The manual override should be on a terminal near the food storage room…I'll guide you to it as best I can."

Jacob nodded slightly, though his response was cut short as a screech of tortured metal echoed throughout the deck. Almost like a door being pried open.

Sure enough, the loud snarling of something inhuman echoed from another corridor off to one side. Jacob shouldered his rifle as they neared a split in the hallway. "Sounds like we have company…"

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the maintenance hatch wouldn't open for anyone save authorized personal, which as it turned out, Mordin and Hammond, weren't on the list.

Luckily the scientist was as good with computers as he was with medicine, even if he didn't recognize the system he was forced to hack.

"How much longer?" Hammond asked, his gaze never faltering from the corridor behind them while he leaned against the wall next to the hatch, a pistol clutched loosely between his fingers.

"Not long. Almost done." The salarian responded, his words short and clipped like always. A few taps on his Omni-tool later, and he nodded. "Done!" With a final tap the hatch sprung open, allowing access to the twisting tunnel like system that ran throughout the ship.

Stepping back, Mordin gestured for his companion to go first. Hammond simply shrugged before leading the way. As he carefully crawled into the tunnel, taking care not to aggravate his injured leg any further, he noted just how…Narrow the passage was.

How the hell did engineers in full rigs crawl around in these things?

Pushing the thought aside, he did his best to lead the way through the maze of interconnected tunnels and passages. One would no doubt take them to the food storage and hydroponics deck. However all it would take is a wrong turn and they'd wind up in a completely different area.

And given the damage to the ship, it was just as likely they'd wind up in a depressurized area and die. He didn't know about Mordin, but he didn't have a rebreather…

Again he forced the thought from his mind, focusing on simply moving forwards, only pausing now and then to check the holomap of the ship and try to make sense of where on it they were.

Sadly the map didn't cover the maintenance passages. And he soon gave up using it. "Shouldn't be much further." He commented as he clicked the map off and continued crawling.

They didn't make it much further, before a dull clang reached their ears, followed by the clinking of something tapping against the metal from up ahead.

Both Mordin and Hammond drew their pistols and began to advance more carefully. The last thing they needed was something ambushing them here, no room to move or fight properly. They'd be easy pray for the necromorphs.

The next few minutes passed in silence, from them at least, the constant rustling and clanging sounds that indicated something else was in the vent continued to echo around them, making it impossible to know whether they were being followed, or crawling towards it…

* * *

With a flick of her wrist, Jack sent another of the, things flying into the wall of the hallway, where it impacted with a sickening crack. The blue glow that enveloped it faded a moment later as she relaxed. "To easy…" She commented, her hand closing into a fist as the same glow faded from her body.

"Easy for you to say…" Zaeed responded, shaking his head slightly as he carefully stepped past the necromorph, his flamethrower aimed at it the entire time, things had a habit of not dying around here, and he wasn't about to be turned into a appetizer for one of those ghoulish creatures. "You can just throw them about with ya mind." He finished as he made it past the corpse and focused on the hallway ahead of them.

Jack gave the mercenary a glare as she casually strolled past the creature, not even bothering to give it a second glance. "You wouldn't say that if you had to use them." She growled quietly, with a gun all you had to do was point and shoot. With biotics though, there was a lot more stress, both on the mind and body that came with it.

The payoff might seem worth it, but that was because he wasn't seeing the complete picture. And Jack wasn't about to go into detail about them right now.

Turning another corner, the pair was halted by another necromorph, this one wasn't about to attack them however, already it was sprawled out in a heap, blood pooling around it from several gunshot wounds. "Looks like were on the right track." Zaeed commented as he stepped closer and brought his flamethrower up in case it moved.

"No shit." The biotic behind him commented, making the mercenary grit his teeth. Ordinarily he'd ignore her almost insulting and abusive attitude, but given there was no one else around to talk to, he was having a hard time about it.

Pushing his frustration aside, he noted several footprints in the blood leading away from the corpse. Stepping around the corpse, he set off after them. Chances are the commander and the rest of the squad weren't far ahead. Though he couldn't shake the dread at what else might be ahead…

* * *

The trip back to the elevator and back to the airlock was unnervingly quiet. Isaac didn't know what to say or really do, and Tali seemed lost in her thoughts, probably beating herself up for the loss of Thane to think of anything to say.

The engineer wasn't happy with leaving the drell behind either. But that tentacle had moved faster then them, and by now if the assassin wasn't already dead. It would be anyones guess where on the ship he'd wound up by now. Who knew what these things did with people that were still alive…

He shivered slightly and forced the thought out of his head. Instead he focused on the door in front of them, the airlock that would lead back to the main body of the ship.A quick space walk and they could meet up with the rest of the squad.

Isaac paused before tapping the cycle command on the terminal, his eyes ghosting over his rigs HUD. His oxygen supply was full, but that only meant three minutes at best. It would be cutting it close, and if they ran into trouble…

A hand idly ran across his neck, recalling the necromorph that had attacked him. Damn thing had almost punctured the seal. If he got hit like that again, he doubted he'd be so lucky.

"Ready?" His gaze shifted to Tali, who simply nodded. The engineer frowned behind his helmet, but chose not to say anything. She'd hardly said a word since his brief outburst.

With a few taps on the terminal, the door behind them clanged shut and the oxygen was vented from the room as it cycled, a moment later a series of warning beeps sounded inside Isaac's helmet, a bright orange indicator flashing up to indicate he was on the suits internal supply.

A moment later the door opened, and he cautiously stepped over the threshold, the dull clunk of his boots magnetic clamps lost to the cold vacuum. "Just a quick walk." He muttered under his breath. Before leading the way out onto the deck of the ship.

The only sound that reached his ears was his own slow, heavy breathing. All other sound was non existent, save the occasional beep from his rig to indicate his air supply had dwindled a fraction more.

Ignoring the timer, he continued across the hull of the ship in silence, Tali only a step or two behind him. He noted with a degree of concern that the hull around them was in worse shape then it had been the first time.

There had been a few holes and breaches here and there, but now the outer layer of armour and metal was a mess, scorched and blackened in places , no doubt from Valor crashing into it. Other places entire sections had been broken and sheared off, several pieces were still floating lazily around them.

"Damn…The ships taken a beating." He commented, his eyes sweeping back and forth as he picked his way around the damaged sections of hull.

He couldn't help but feel uneasy however as he studied the damaged hull. Something just felt, wrong about the situation, the damaged sections could easily hide something…

Another beep shifted his gaze away from the hull around them, and to the indicator on his visor.

_2:00_

They'd been out here a minute already? That didn't sound right.

Shrugging the thought off, he quickened his pace upon noting they were still a good distance from the next airlock.

* * *

"I can walk on my own…" Melina said quietly, having grown tired of being supported and almost dragged along by Garrus. The toxins the wheezers had been spreading might have caught up with her, but it hadn't put her totally out of commission yet.

She hated the idea of appearing weak in front of her squad, friends. This was almost humiliating in her mind, having to be supported by the alien, she preferred to walk on her own, no matter how beat up she was or how difficult it might be for her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noted the turian grinning slightly, his rebreather being just see through enough for her to pick up on his expression. "With all due respect Shepard. You'd just slow us down." As if to prove his point, another cough, followed by a second escaped the commander, and a new pain flared up in her stomach and lungs.

Gritting her teeth, she mumbled a curse under her breath and did her best to stand up straighter, surprisingly Garrus didn't try to stop her, letting Melina stand on her own, though he kept the supporting arm around her shoulders until he was sure she was able to support her own weight.

Of course she didn't make it that far before her legs abruptly failed and she found herself leaning against her friend once again. "Fine…You win." She mumbled quietly, a sigh escaping her as she realized that, whether she liked it or not, she wasn't able to move about to well on her own. And given the sounds they'd heard earlier, they couldn't afford to slow down.

"Don't strain yourself Shepard. Once the filters are working again, you'll be back on you're feet." Shepard decided not to respond, as much as she wanted to believe that, she couldn't shake the doubt that the poison may have run its course by now, she had little idea as to what it actually did once it got into someone's lungs. Maybe it was to late to recover.

She gritted her teeth again; she forced the thought from her mind. If that was the case so be it, but she wouldn't let that eat away at her, make her give up.

"How much further?" She called out, her voice weak, but still somewhat firm.

"Not far now, Kendra's tracking us with the security systems. Should be just up ahead." Jacob responded, one hand shifting to his ear to listen to the next set of instructions. With a nod he turned the corner ahead of them, Shepard and Garrus close behind.

"Should be just through this door…" The soldier trailed off open noting the door was locked tight, and the terminal next to it was broken, the screen shattered and inoperable.

"That complicates things…"


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

"This complicates things." Jacob growled as he approached the door and examined the panel. "Looks like it was, shot…" He informed the squad as he ran a hand over the broken terminal, two holes in the screen, impossible to have been the bladed talons of the creatures they'd seen so far.

"Bullets?" Garrus repeated on learning of this development. "So those creatures can use guns now?" His mandibles clicked several times as he considered that possibility.

"I doubt it. Chances are someone else did this. A survivor probably." Jacob said as he moved away from the terminal. "Regardless, how do we get through this door now? It's the fastest way back, and unless we can fix the holopanel…" Shepard cringed as he trailed off, knowing that the only other way would be to backtrack and find another way around.

Meaning more time in the poison choked corridors…

"Get Kendra on the comm. see if she can unlock it or something." Garrus grumbled, clearly voicing her thoughts.

Jacob nodded and shifted a hand to his ear. However the conversation seemed far away to Shepard as she carefully detached herself from her companion and simply fell against the nearest wall for the time being.

Garrus gave her a worried glance, but chose not to argue, leaving her to do as she saw fit while they tried to fix the door.

What felt like an hour ticked by, and Melina noted her vision was started to swim again and her head began to throb and pound. "Hell…" She groaned, a hand jumping to her forehead as the pain suddenly doubled.

She heard someone speak, but the voice was little more then an incoherent mumble to her ears. Forcing her gaze up from the floor, she noted she couldn't even focus properly; everything was turning into a blur.

" _Shepard."_

The commander barely noticed the voice; barely registered it was a voice she shouldn't be hearing anymore.

" _Just going to lie there and die are you Skipper?"_

Her hands twitched as the voice broke into the disoriented haze. Only one person had ever called her that. And they'd died two years ago.

Memories, bad ones, she'd rather keep buried. They always picked the best times to surface.

Of course, she couldn't remember when Ashley had ever said that…Pushing the thought aside she set about dragging herself upright again, using the wall to help her stand.

Stumbling lightly, she barely made it to her feet and was forced to lean against the wall while Garrus and Jacob discussed what to do next.

" _Pathetic!"_  She inwardly winced as Ashley's voice assaulted her again, another memory attacking her addled mind.  _"You survived Mindoir, Saren and the Collectors! And now you're going to die to a little poison in you're lungs?"_

Shepard's head snapped up at that. Now she knew THAT wasn't a memory, but if it wasn't then why was she imagining it? Damn the toxin must be screwing with her mind as well as her lungs…

" _Just going to give up are you? Lie down and die like a coward?"_ Her hands moved to clutch her head, and she groaned as the throbbing in her skull suddenly increased tenfold.

"Commander? You okay?" This time the voice was different, real. And a moment later she felt a talon grip her shoulder even trhough her armour. Glancing up she met Garrus' worried gaze.

"Fine…Fine…" She lied, and she could tell by the subtle shift in his expression that the turian had picked up on it. "What's the situation?"

"Doors no good. Someone –or something- has locked Kendra out of the systems for this deck." She barely resisted groaning again at his next words. "We'll have to find another way in."

Not far now.

The thought echoed through Isaac's mind for what felt like the eighth time since they'd left the airlock and started carefully picking their way across the hull of the Ishimura.

He'd only made it a short way before he'd received a warning from his rig, drawing his attention to the fact that his oxygen supply was running down faster then it should, and he only had a couple of minutes to spare.

The only explanation for the rapid loss of air was that his rig was breached. Which if that was the case, he couldn't do anything about it, rigs, especially engineering ones weren't exactly easy to get on and off, let alone perform on the spot repairs on. Not to mention he didn't carry spare components with him.

No, his best bet was to get back inside the ship and try to find a store, the automated repair system could patch up the breach in no time.

Of course the problem was actually getting to the airlock and back inside the ship. He was already running low on oxygen. And they still had a few meters at best to go.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Tali giving him another worried glance. He hadn't told her about the breach, but she knew something was wrong. Likely due to his breathing growing a little more strained with each passing second that ticked by. The closer he came to suffocating, the more noticeable and taxing his breathing became.

Still, it was just a little bit further. And so far they hadn't seen anything dangerous; surely nothing could go wrong now…He really hoped nothing would.

* * *

After what felt like hours of searching, and likely being hunted. Mordin and Hammond finally found what they believed was the right maintenance hatch and made it out of the cramped tunnels.

Having found a secure spot to hold up for a moment, the human had finally relented and let Mordin set to work examining his injured leg. Luckily it hadn't given him much grief during the crawl through the tunnels, but now they were up and walking. It was becoming a liability.

"Not serious, only minor break." The salarian commented as he rapidly tapped away at his Omni-tool interface. "This should help." A few taps later he applied something, Hammond decided against asking for details. Regardless within a few moments he felt the pain lessen slightly. It would do.

After the doctor helped him stand, he swiftly brought up the holomap again. After examining it for a few moments, the soldier breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like we made it to the right deck after all…But were still a good distance from you're squ-"He was cut off as a sharp cough punctuated his sentence. "Squad…The hell?" He hadn't noticed it at first, but now he noted a slight itch in his lungs, an unpleasant sensation that was growing worse with each breath.

"Guess they haven't finished with whatever was polluting the air." He commented, recalling the briefing that felt so long ago now.

Pushing the thought aside, he did his best to stand on his injured leg and noted it wasn't as difficult as he thought. Clearly the meds Mordin had given him were quite effective.

After testing his leg to ensure it wouldn't collapse, he nodded to his companion, and the pair set off once again, this time through they had more spacious corridors as opposed to cramped maintenance tunnels, certainly a positive change.

As they moved, Mordin idly pressed a hand to his ear. "Any luck?" Hammond asked after a moment, knowing the group had been having radio issues since arriving.

"Mostly static, something interfering. But, some words, weak, hard to understand…" The Salarian paused, before nodding slightly. "Might be close." The soldier nodded, if they could find even some of the other members of the squad. It would help, more guns to fend off the necromorphs was always welcome.

Of course, finding the rest of the team would be the fun part, they had a lot of deck to cover…

* * *

Zaeed was starting to grow uneasy now. It had been easily twenty minutes since they'd picked up the commanders trail, and aside from a few equipment and storage rooms which they'd scavenged extra ammo out of. They hadn't encountered anything save the odd broken body or pool of blood.

The mercenary didn't mind not being jumped by the creatures at every turn, but the sudden, unsettling silence that seemed to have overtaken the entire ship was just, unnerving. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were being stalked, hunted.

Of course what made it worse was his unlikely companion had started talking to herself…

He'd picked up on it shortly after they discovered the first bullet riddled corpse. Jack had uttered a few curses under her breath now and again, something he didn't care much for; she always seemed a bit unstable in his mind. But now it was growing more frequent and she was starting to sound angry.

The last thing he fancied was her taking out her aggressions on him however. For now he was simply keeping his mouth shut, best to just ignore it and hope she sorted out her mental issues by herself. Less chance he'd drawn her ire that way.

By now he'd fallen a few steps behind her, and he kept one eye on the biotic while scanning the side passages and darkened corners. So far they'd gotten lucky, but he knew better then to let his guard down, that would be the last mistake they ever made.

"Place is too fucking quiet!" Jack suddenly snarled, making Zaeed instinctively tense. "Where the hell did all those bastards go!"

"Keep ya damn voice down!" The mercenary snapped as he hefted his flamethrower, knowing the shouting would no doubt bring something down on them. "You'll bring the whole god damn lot of them down on us in a minute."

Jack opened her mouth to reply, but in a surprising show of restraint, the biotic simply closed her mouth, gave him a glare that would have frozen the blood had she directed it towards anyone else, and stormed off, leaving the mercenary somewhat uneasy. And beginning to question whether he was going to see the next twenty minutes…

* * *

Faced with no other option, Shepard and her squad began the long trek through the corridors once again, searching for a way around the damaged door.

Despite protests, Shepard had chosen to walk on her own once again, though regardless Garrus was close at hand, ready to catch her the moment she stumbled or showed signs of weakness. Something the commander refused to let happen.

" _Okay, if the schematics are right, there should be another passage up ahead on the right. It'll lead to a decontamination chamber."_  Kendra informed them. Or rather, tried to, as the comms crackled and dissolved to static on more then one occasion during the trek. Something was interfering with the communications, or more likely someone…

Still though, they were heading in the right direction and that was enough for them at the moment, they'd figure out what was wrong with their comms later.

The next few minutes passed in silence as they followed the directions, stopping only once or twice to check the different side corridors or rooms to ensure nothing was waiting to ambush them, and in turn to try and steal a few more clips of ammunition for what was no doubt ahead.

"What were these humans thinking?" Garrus asked as he pried open a locker and found a collection of medical supplies and a box of line racks for his weapon. "This stuff is just thrown wherever it fits!"

"Clearly inventory management wasn't one of the main skills on the job description." Shepard commented as she pocketed a clip for the rifle she'd retrieved. She did her best to hide the fact that she was leaning heavily on the locker as she rifled through its contents. "Still, it works in our favour, so lets not look a gift horse in the mouth."

Silence followed her words and she idly spared a glance towards Garrus, who was giving her a strange look behind his helmet. "Human saying." She said with a shrug, before finishing her search of the locker and moving back towards the door.

Jacob had chosen to remain in the corridor to ensure nothing snuck up on them. Shepard noted he was tense and glancing back and forth along the hallway uneasily. She recalled his odd outburst earlier as she rested a hand on the rifle slung over her shoulder.

He hadn't acted strangely since then, but she hadn't forgotten the chilling words that reached her ears, somehow the warning at stuck with her. "We found some ammo, not much we can use though sadly…" She commented once he'd focused on them, after a moment she idly tossed him one of the clips they'd found. "I don't even recognize most of the stuff they use."

Jacob simply nodded and tucked the clip into a spare pocket of his armour. "Tell me about it…Some of its similar to our own, but still wildly different..." It was odd to say the least; so far the ship appeared human in design. But the technology used about it was much different in many ways to what the alliance, or humanity in general used, and it certainly wasn't alien make either. Which put the question as to where some of this stuff came from into everyone's minds, but so far they hadn't bothered to stop and try to get answers

Melina frowned slightly but decided against commenting further. "The decontamination room shouldn't be far now, let's keep moving." Garrus and Jacob nodded before setting off once again. Shepard fell into step behind them, mostly to avoid revealing she was barely standing up straight at this point.

Each step was difficult, and by now she was leaning heavily against the wall to keep herself upright, though somehow she was quick to bolt upright if either of her squad mates appeared to be glancing her way.

She refused to look weak in front of the team. Even if she was on the verge of collapsing from the poison and exhaustion, she would do so once they got back to the Normandy, not a minute sooner.

Several minutes passed in relative silence, aside from the creaking of bulkheads and the thudding of their boots on metal everything was peaceful. And quite honestly it was making them uneasy.

"Guess there's something more appetizing on the menu then us." Jacob commented as they halted at the door. Thankfully this one wasn't shot, much to Shepard's relief. They were one step closer to getting out of this mess, or so she hoped.

The doors opened without protest, giving way to a surprisingly expansive room, what appeared to be a table was placed in the center of the room, and a few lockers were set against one wall. But aside from that the room was empty. Several windows offered glimpses into the darkened area beyond, but even in the dim light everything appeared peaceful.

"We can only hope they leave us alone…" Garrus responded as they filed into the decontamination chamber and waited for it to activate. "The longer they leave us alone, the faster we can get our mission done."

Shepard decided not to offer her own opinion, after all the only thing that would likely draw the necromorphs away, would have been the other teams. Instead she gave the room another once over and spotted a console next to the center table, a quick glance at the screen revealed a simple display the words 'Begin decontamination?' glowing faintly at the top of the screen.

Tapping the confirmation key, she heard the door lock behind them and the ships VI confirm the process had started. Now all they had to do was wait…

With a sigh, she awkwardly pulled herself up onto the corner of the table and used it as a temporary seat. "Lets hope were not far from the filtration systems. This crap is going to kill us all before long. Helmet filters or not." She said quietly, her gaze idly wandering to the window across from her.

Almost as soon as she focused on it, something seemed to drop down under the edge. A frown formed as she shifted her rifle onto her lap. "Keep you're eyes peeled…" Sensing her unease, Garrus and Jacob wisely checked over their own weapons and shifted them into a ready position.

A few moments passed in relative silence, the hissing of the chamber working punctuated by Shepard's ragged breaths as they waited for something, anything to happen.

And naturally it did.

Before any of them could blink, the lights abruptly cut out, plunging the room into darkness, the VI chimed in warning of a critical failure, and everything ground to a halt, leaving the squad trapped in the room.

"Spirits…" Garrus growled, a moment later a beam of light flared to life as he activated the lights built into his helmet. "What just happened?" He asked, the lights flicking about the room as he checked for any signs of danger, a second later two more lights kicked in, Jacob and Melina finding the lights on their weapons to compliment the turian's.

"Seems like a power outage. A very, convenient one at that…" Shepard sighed as she scanned the room, her light panning over the walls and reflecting off the windows. There didn't seem to be anything out of place, maybe she was just reading to much into it.

Jacob idly approached the door and noted it didn't open, checking the terminal, he found it blank. "Were locked in until powers back. Or we find another way out."

Shepard nodded slightly as her light briefly highlighted a vent inset in the wall, way to narrow for any of them to fit in, not unless they removed their armour and that would be suicide. Garrus idly checked the window, after lightly rapping his knuckles against it; he slammed a fist into the glass. It didn't even crack.

"No other way out by the looks…Guess we wait for the power to come back." Melina sighed as she shifted back onto the table, anything to get off her legs for a few moments.

* * *

Things had been progressing smoothly enough. Up until the lights abruptly cut out and plunged Mordin and Hammond into darkness.

Both were quick to activate their flashlights and scan the corridor to ensure they were alone, the darkness would have been a perfect ambush opportunity. But surprisingly they were still alone. Or so it appeared at any rate.

"Power outage? Strange, unexpected." Mordin glanced upwards briefly, studying the now deactivated lights. "Backup power not working either…"

"Yeah…Something's not right about this." Hammond agreed, if it had been a generator failure or the like, surely the emergency systems would have kicked in to compensate.

That meant someone had actually powered the deck -or at least parts of it- down on purpose.

But who?

" _Were locked in until power comes back. Or we find another way out."_

The salarian abruptly shifted a hand to his ear as his comm. unit came alive. He recognized the voice even with the static that was threatening to drown him out.

" _No other way out by the looks…Guess we wait for the power to come back."_

"Shepard? Good to hear you're voice…" Mordin abruptly cut in, hoping his own radio still worked. After a few moments of silence, he realized that it was, in fact not working properly.

His Omni-tool lit up and he began tapping away at the device, Hammond simply leaned against the wall, taking some of the weight off his leg while he waited to see what their next move would be. They still had to get the poison to food storage to deal with that, thing inhabiting it. But getting the squad back together was also a priority.

"Signal weak, not far." Mordin commented as he continued toying with his Omni-tool. "Could track them with signal."

His companion offered a single nod. "Lead the way." Hopefully once they found Shepard's team, they could deal with the creature and get the hell off this ship. Orders be damned at this point, he'd rather fail the mission then get killed by these, necromorphs.

After a few more seconds of toying with the wrist mounted computer. Mordin quickly set off, following the signal towards Shepard's team. Luckily they weren't far away.

* * *

 _Just a few feet to go now_ … Isaac repeated in his head as they drew closer to the airlock.

By now he was starting to doubt he'd make it. His rigs air supply was dangerously low, only around forty five seconds or so remaining. And even as the approached the door that would lead them back inside, he had a sneaking suspicion that something would go horribly wrong.

So far his intuition had been proven right at every turn, so why not now?

Tali had obviously picked up on what was wrong, as his breathing had began to grow irregular and strained as the already limited supply of oxygen was dwindling, making it harder to breath.

Still she hadn't chosen to comment, though he knew she was watching him closely, likely ready to act should the need arise.

He appreciated the thought, but also knew that wouldn't be possible, she didn't have any means of repairing his rig, and neither did he. The only thigns they could do is get back inside…

And thank god for them they'd finally reached the airlock. The walk across the hull had seemed to take a lifetime, likely because he was constantly worrying about suffocating.

Breathing a relieved sigh. Isaac hit the control to open the door. And felt his heart skip a beat when a warning tone sounded and the door didn't cycle open.

Holding his breath now, the engineer tapped the button again, and a warning flashed up on the screen.

" _Lockdown in progress."_

His eyes darted to his oxygen counter.

_00:27_

"Oh hell…"

* * *

_Two Hours Earlier_

Since escaping, whatever the hell that thing had been, things had been quiet aboard the Normandy.

Now they were a safe distance away, as ordered, and waiting for contact from the ground team.

Joker waited silently, more or less, idly drumming a tune into the arm of his chair while watching the screens in front of him. It had been an hour now since they'd pulled away from that wreck, the Ishimura, narrowly escaping the, tentacle like things that had pried the hull open like it was paper.

The pilot frowned as he idly glanced over the damage report. This armour was some of the most durable and strongest in the galaxy. And those creatures hadn't even broken a sweat (if they could sweat that was) in ripping into the hull.

Luckily the few members of the ground team that hadn't gone aboard that nightmare vessel had been able to fend them off and let the ship get to a safe distance.

Now came the waiting game. Until they received an update from Shepard or the others, they were stuck here…Or until time ran out.

Everyone knew Joker wouldn't leave even with the order to bug out if they didn't report back. Naturally when Garrus had updated him, the turian hadn't given an exact time, but both of them knew it wouldn't be forever.

Despite that, he had no plans to leave any time soon. He wouldn't abandon the crew until he was sure without a doubt they weren't coming back.

He was dragged out of his thoughts as a warning flashed up on one of the screens. Leaning forward slightly, the pilot examined the data.

Long range scanners had picked up something entering the system, another ship. Frowning slightly, he quickly doubled checked the stealth systems to ensure they were engaged, the last thing they needed was to draw attention.

The ship didn't match any known signatures either…And the last time an unidentifiable vessel had found them, they'd lost the first Normandy…And Shepard.

"EDI, have they spotted us?" He asked, not bothering to glance over at the pedestal when the glowing blue orb appeared.

"No, the ship is currently on an intercept course with the Ishimura. So far they haven't detected our presence." The AI replied in its unnervingly calm voice. "They are hailing the ship…"

Before Joker could even think about trying to eavesdrop, the comms crackled to life. Likely thanks to EDI taking the initiative.

" _This is the USM Valor, widecasting on all frequencies to USG Ishimura in response to you're SOS…Repeat. This is the USM Valor…"_

"USM Valor?" Joker frowned as he listened to the message. USM wasn't any ship designation he recognized. Neither was the overall make of the vessel. But the person on the comm. sounded human.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." He muttered under his breath. Despite the realization it was a human on the line; the Normandy made no attempt to reveal itself. Being human meant nothing in this galaxy. For now he simply waited and watched. If they showed any sign of hostility towards the Normandy, he'd have to move quickly to get away. If they showed signs of attacking the Ishimura, then he'd have to be ready to defend it, if only to protect the team aboard it.


	26. Chapter Twenty-Six

"Today just isn't my day, is it?" Isaac sighed as he tried the airlock controls again and received the same error. What had caused a lockdown he couldn't say, but he'd rather take his chances with whatever was inside, as opposed to staying out here with his rapidly dwindling oxygen supply.

He didn't have time to stop and think at this point, every second counted.

"Watch my back." He said, sparing Tali only a brief glance before focusing on the terminal. Clipping his plasma cutter to his rig, he set to work finding the access panel that protected the wiring of the door.

With a rough yank he pried it loosed and tossed it aside, -it didn't matter if it floated away or not- not bothering to hesitate he went to work examining the mix of wires and cables that were formerly hidden.

"Shouldn't be hard to, rewire the door and force it to…Unlock." He muttered, his voice strained as he struggled to keep his breathing calm and regular. By this point he was feeling light headed as the oxygen in his rig rapidly ran low. Every breath was harder then the last and it was making his job difficult as he struggled to keep his mind focused on the job.

"Come on, come on…" The panel flickered but still remained locked. Just a couple more wires ought to do it…

He risked a glance at the oxygen counter.

_00:10_

His hands started to quiver very slightly as he began toying with the various connections, again the screen flickered and briefly the lockdown warning vanished, but it was back again a moment later.

_00:08_

Isaac was starting to get the feeling that this wasn't just a malfunctioning door or failure in the system. It was almost like someone was trying to keep them out…

He didn't dwell on that thought however; his only goal was getting the door open and getting inside before he suffocated.

_00:06_

Just a few more wires…He kept repeating that in his head as he continued franticly working on the panel, just a little bit more and they'd be back inside…

The harder he tried though, the longer this seemed to be taking. Normally he could perform a hack in just a few seconds flat…Not that he needed to often but on the rare occasions he knew how it was done, so why was it so difficult to accomplish now?

He had a feeling that was do to the lack of air reaching his lungs. He couldn't think clearly and couldn't focus properly.

_00:04_

Finally the screen vanished to black, and then returned, this time with a new message.

" _Cycle Airlock?"_

Without stopping to think Isaac slammed a fist onto the confirm button and breathed a sigh as it began unlocking the door.

The engineer inhaled a deep breath, grateful that he'd been able to get the door open in time.

Or at least tried to, there was suddenly no air left in his rig. Panic began to set in again as he glanced at the air counter and saw it was blinking red.

_00:00_

Isaac cursed under his breath as his nerves threatened to take hold again. Of course this was always a risk for him; he was an engineer and spent a lot of time in space where running out of air was a very real possibility.

But this was the first time it had actually happened. It took all of his self control to simply hold his breath and wait for the door to open.

And wait, and wait. He could just picture himself turning a shade of blue or worse under his helmet as he felt the subtle vibrations of the airlock cycling and unlocking. He never realized just how long these bloody things took. Plus, chances are when he'd rewired the controls, it had probably jolted the system and it was likely performing a routine check.

The engineer slowly clenched and unclenched his hands, doing his best to hide the subtle shaking that swept through his body. Come on; come on just a couple more seconds.

After what felt like hours, he saw the heavy door shift and light spilled out of the crack. Though naturally each inch the door opened seemed to take hours to his oxygen starved mind.

He didn't bother waiting for it to open fully, as soon as the door parted enough for him to fit; he broke into a sprint and stumbled into the chamber beyond. Tali was luckily right behind him.

Again he didn't pause and hit the terminal to start it cycling. The doors slammed shut behind them and plunged the pair into darkness.

Isaac vaguely recalled sinking to one knee as his rig informed him he'd left zero gravity. His boots automatically disengaged but he didn't notice that. The only thing he noticed was his lungs burning and his vision darkening though not from the lack of proper lighting.

Finally the hiss of atmosphere and air being pumped into the chamber barely reached his ears over the rapid pounding of his heart. And he instinctively inhaled a mouthful of the fresh (somewhat) oxygen. Followed swiftly by another, and a third in rapid succession.

"Isaac? Isaac are you okay?" He could just barely hear Tali over his own ragged breathing. But he managed a weak nod regardless.

By the time the inner door had unlocked, he'd managed to regain enough breath to gasp out a few words. "Never…Doing that…Again." The engineer gasped, before accepting Tali's offered hand and pulling himself upright once again. "That was…Rough." He shook his head, trying to clear his senses as the door opened fully, revealing the corridor beyond.

A hand dipped to his cutter as he waited for whatever had triggered the lockdown to attack. Though the hallway beyond was strangely quiet and devoid of life.

While Isaac struggled to catch his breath, Tali took the lead and crept out into the corridor, cutter ready for anything. After a few moments however, she relaxed her guard. "Nothing out here…" She kept her eyes open though, ready for anything.

Finally however her eyes briefly fell open the panel that unlocked the airlock from the inside of the ship. And most notably the fact that the access panel had been removed, much like Isaac had been forced to do outside.

"You were right…It looks like someone was trying to keep us out." After catching his breath, Isaac joined her and gave the terminal a quick once over as well. "No doubt, someone wanted us dead."

"But, who? The necromorphs?" Tali asked, Isaac simply shook his head.

"I doubt it; they haven't proven too adept at reprogramming doors so far…" That meant there was someone else, a survivor on the ship, and they weren't looking for a rescue.

The engineer spared a glance at his companion, before nodding towards the corridor behind them. "Come on, I need to get my suit patched up. Then we need to find you're friends." Tali nodded in agreement, but let him lead the way.

As they set off however, Isaac couldn't help but wonder at who might have still been alive…There was that doctor from the medical deck. The lunatic that sent that monster after them…

The only other people he'd seen so far had been the crew from the Normandy…Had one of them done this? It seemed unlikely, why would they try killing Tali and him?

He spared the quarian another glance, before banishing the thought. But it crept into the back of his mind again swiftly enough.

" _Isaac? Isaac can you hear me?"_  Kendra's voice abruptly assaulted his ears in a burst of static, giving him a welcome distraction from his thoughts and his near death experience moments before.

"Yeah, I'm here…Barely."

" _Thank god, I've been trying to reach you for an hour now…"_  The engineer paused briefly, had they been hunting for Thane for that long? Shrugging the thought off, he let her continue.  _"I've been digging through the ships logs, and I think you'll want to hear this…"_

Isaac shared a glance with Tali. "I'm not going to like this am I?"

" _Apparently the colony unearthed something; they called it the Marker…"_ Isaac fidgeted slightly as something clicked in the back of his mind. He'd heard that before somewhere.  _"Apparently, shortly after they unearthed it, there were reports of dementia, depression…Violence. A member of the survey team that discovered it apparently went insane and killed the rest of the team…."_

"How does that effect us and what's happening here?" Isaac asked slowly, already he could tell he wasn't going to like the answer, but he waited for the response regardless.

" _Along with riots and violence amongst the colonists…There appear to be reports of horrific creatures attacking the colony…Creatures that match the descriptions of the necromorphs we've encountered on the Ishimura."_

Isaac and Tali shared another look, unease clearly written on both their faces, even if they couldn't see it. "The, Marker, it must attract them. But, why haven't they shown up before?" Tali asked, hoping the reports offered an answer.

" _There's nothing in relation to that here, maybe it was deactivated or something, the excavation team may have turned it on somehow. There isn't any real confirmation in the reports, save a mention of a power surge around the time they first uncovered it."_

Isaac offered a slight nod, before responding. "It's something to go on. Though it doesn't help us in the least, even if this, this, Marker is the cause of the necromorphs, we can't shut it down from here. For now we should just focus on getting the Ishimura out of danger, and then we can focus on dealing with these creatures later." He surprised even himself with the speech, however it was the truth, something had to be done. Lest these creatures escape Aegis VII and start attacking other colonies, or even Earth…

" _Agreed. For now its best you get back to the others on the hydroponics deck. I've been having trouble contacting them, and they still haven't dealt with that, creature either…"_

Isaac simply nodded, pushing his thoughts aside for the moment. "Right." Closing the comm. channel, he resumed studying the map of the area, trying to locate a storage room, or one of the stores which contained spare Rig parts. He couldn't keep wandering the ship with a busted seal, one unlucky turn or shattered view port. And it'd all be over.

His eyes widened a touch when he spotted his goal, there! A store, and not far away either! That was an odd stroke of luck. But he wasn't about to argue. Instead he offered a slight nod to Tali to indicate they were moving and set off towards his goal.

Several minutes ticked by in relative silence as Isaac followed the directions his rig provided, and Tali simply followed him. Now and again the faint clattering in a side room or snarl of a necromorph would draw their attention, but for the most part they were left alone.

Isaac wasn't sure which he preferred. Being attacked at every turn, or this, unnerving peace. Personally he'd rather be fighting for his life, then waiting with mounting anticipation and fear as he humored the thoughts of what lay around the next corner, only to reach it and find nothing.

It seemed Tali was in much the same situation, he'd noted shortly after they'd managed to get back inside the ship that her breathing was slightly irregular, and he had noted a very faint rattle behind her movements, her hands quivering slightly as she gripped her plasma cutter.

From what he'd seen so far, Tali wasn't the type to get easily scared, but something was clearly affecting her. The engineer chose not to mention it however, more then likely if he let on he knew something was bothering her it would only unnerve her further. If it was a problem she'd mention it…Or he hoped so at any rate.

Instead he kept his attention split between his holomap of the deck and the corridor ahead of them, his ears strained for even the slightest sound, which there was an abundance of it seemed.

Isaac frowned as another distant howl of some abomination reached his ears, behind him he heard Tali's breathing increase slightly, a frown darkened his features. Whatever that was, it didn't sound friendly, which wasn't saying much given the situation, but this had sounded even more, unsettling.

And worse, it didn't sound that far away…

"Come on, were almost to the store." Isaac commented as he increased his pace, he really didn't fancy meeting whatever the hell that thing was.

* * *

After what felt like hours of searching, they finally found it. Much to Isaac's relief. By some miracle the store was even still online!

He frowned as his gaze swept back and forth along the corridor as they drew closer. So far things had been far too quiet, and too…Clean.

There was the odd patch of blood or the like, but unlike other parts of the ship it seemed pretty pristine. And if the map was correct, they were still on the communications deck, which should have been heavily populated.

Maybe he was just being paranoid, but something just didn't add up about that.

Shaking his head he approached the store and idly tapped the screen, causing it to flicker to life and power up. After a brief moment of tinkering he unlocked the full arsenal. "Not a lot here…Looks like someone cleared it out already." He commented with a quiet sigh. There was still a few weapons in stock, and ammunition for each, but actual supplies were pretty scarce. Someone on this deck must have cleaned it out…

He hesitated again as he scanned over the remaining contents. Was there a survivor? A group of them perhaps?

And just as quickly as he entertained the thought, he banished it. If their was people still alive, then they'd find them later, right now he had a job to do.

Tapping in a few more commands, he breathed another, more relaxed sigh as he noted their was still some Rig parts in stock. "Alright…Wait here…This won't take long." He told Tali as the screen vanished and the door behind it parted to let him enter. "The repair process only takes a few seconds."

The quarian tilted her head slightly, seemingly looking past him at the newly revealed chamber, but she nodded regardless. "Don't take long." She said quietly, and Isaac noted her voice was slightly, off. The accent being slightly thicker then before. Was she…sick?

Isaac shook the thought off and offered a brief nod, before stepping into the chamber. A moment later the doors hissed closed…

* * *

Tali studied the store for a few moments after Isaac vanished inside, she hadn't bothered to ask (at least not yet) but the concept of going to a store to patch his armour seemed...Strange to her. Surely a maitenance area or a storage room would be a smarter place to look? After all that's where the spare equipment would be.

For now however, she was just following Isaac. he knew the ship and how it worked better then she did. Instead she took the opportunity to check her Omni-tool display, and couldn't help a rush of dread at the information provided.

As she'd feared, when the necromorph she'd mistaken for Isaac a few hours before had broken through her suit, she'd been exposed to both whatever was on its claws as well as the open air, even if it was only for a few moments. It was enough for her to fall ill.

It wasn't serious thankfully, but if she didn't get off the Ishimura and get some proper medical attention soon, her condition could worsen. For now though her envirosuits systems was keeping her going. Though the trade-off of being doped up on antibiotics could potentially be just as dangerous as catching a fever.

She quickly turned the display off when she heard the doors behind her open again. As Isaac had promised, the repair had only taken a few minutes at most. Spinning on her heel, Tali was about to ask where their next destination was (After all Isaac was the one with the map) however she found herself pulling up short as she came visor to visor with the newly returned engineer.

Isaac's Rig was no longer the darkened and blood stained brownish colour it had been when they'd first met (or rather, that it had been minutes before) and instead was now a dark blue colour, the plating seemed sleeker though no less armoured. And the trio of blue lights that ran across the helmet was now joined by a pair that swept downwards, cutting through the original set.

"Turns out my Rig were more damaged then I thought." Isaac commented with a shrug, the disruption from his helmet was also slightly different, less grating and rough, more human.

Again Tali spared a brief glance past the engineer and towards the store. How the hell had it replaced his rig in such a short span of time?

Pushing the thought aside, the quarian decided against asking questions. At least for now, her curiosity was peaked, but self preservation was a little more important at this point in time.

"Let's keep moving, it won't be long before the necromorphs find us." Isaac said after a brief silence. Tali simply nodded, deciding to keep her questions to herself for the time being.

Isaac spared a brief glance towards his map, idly picking out a path through the maze of corridors back to the tram terminal. "Let's hope we don't run into any trouble along the way." He commented quietly, before setting off once again, Tali close behind.

Luck was on their side it seemed, as they reached the tram terminal in only a short span of time, and aside from the sounds that had pursed them. Isaac humoured the thought that they were growing closer, but all things considered, it hardly made any difference. They'd dealt with everything that had come their way so far. A few more corpses wouldn't really stop them.

He couldn't help but frown slightly at the thought. Had this situation really degraded to the point where he saw killing as just a chore? Had he been doing it so much that he'd desensitized himself to the concept of killing, even if the necromorphs were technically dead already?

Shaking his head slightly, the engineer pushed the thought aside; he could deal with the doubt and guilt later.

* * *

Finally, after what felt like an hour of walking, they finally reached the tram station, much to his relief. He could do with five minutes to relax after everything they'd gone through.

However as they stepped out onto the platform, he noted with a raised eyebrow that the tram wasn't here already. Stepping up to the control panel, he tapped the call button, only for an error message to pop up.

" _Tram unavailable: Damages to track and tram detected!"_

"…Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Isaac snarled as he slammed a fist into the terminal, he'd risked his damn neck to fix that tram, and now it had wound up wrecked again right when they needed it most!

Just perfect.

"Now what do we do?" Tali asked, having glanced over his shoulder at his outburst and seen the message herself.

"The tram controls are on the other side of the ship, down near the hangerbay." He idly called up a map of the ship and indicated where he meant. "We need to get over here." He indicated the hydroponics deck, which was quite a distance away and in the opposite direction.

"It'll take to long to get back there, and I can't even guarantee that I can fix it even IF we made it back to the tram maintenance station." He hesitated for a moment, dreading the only real course of action they had.

"There's a maintenance walkway that leads throughout the ship…We could use that, but it'll take longer to get to back to the others."

"Where is it?" Tali asked, a slight edge to her voice as dread crept into her voice. Isaac slowly moved to the edge of the platform and peered over the side into the darkness below.

"Down there…" Checking around, he located the ladder that would take them down to the maintenance network. "Its dark at the best of times down there…And who knows what,  _else_  is going to be down there now…"

"What other choice do we have?" The quarian asked with a shrug.

"Good point." Isaac admitted with a sigh, before beginning his descent into the darkness below…


	27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

A dull orange glow filled the darkened decontamination chamber as Shepard checked her mission timer. They'd been stuck in this room for ten minutes now, and were still waiting for the power to return.

Luckily they'd been left alone so far, aside from a few shadows darting past the windows (Which Shepard was deluding herself into thinking were just over hallucinations) things had been relatively quiet. Though how long they would stay that way remained to be seen.

Jacob had began doing with the door panel, hoping to find a way to kick start it and get the door open sooner. Garrus meanwhile had taken to examining his line rifle with something close to awe. Clearly after seeing what it could do, he was keen to get to use it again.

Melina had to admit, she was quite envious of the turian, after all she'd wound up playing it safe and got stuck with an assault rifle.

Pushing the thought aside, she decided to pass the time by examining her new found weapon. It was similar to the rifle she'd brought from the Normandy, in the sense of firerate and the way it handled, but its ammunition type and design were much different to what she was used to.

It was one of many things that bothered her about this mission. It was a human vessel, but bore little to no similarity's to anything in the Alliance fleet, hell it didn't even have the same transponder or designation as a Alliance vessel. It was unlikely that it was a pirate vessel or freelance ship from a colony, not given how radically different its design and systems were.

So where did the tech and concept for this ship come from?

That was a question that had been plaguing her since they'd first started exploring, but up until now she hadn't really gotten the chance given how hectic there situation had been.

Clearly the survivors they'd picked up had answers, Hammond, Isaac and Kendra…But again they hadn't had the time to ask or answer questions.

She had to admit, that had been rather convenient that something kept dragging them away or distracting them when they tried to get answers.

Her mind briefly flashed back to the bridge, when she'd seen the recording of the captains death. That, thing hadn't been far behind.

Shepard was grateful for the darkness as a shudder swept through her. Just thinking about that massive creature that damn near slaughtered her, put the commander on edge.

Pushing her fears back down, she did her best to take her mind off the memory, focusing instead on examining her assault rifle again, trying to gleam some answers out of the polished metal, and failing.

She would have a few questions for the survivors once they gained a spare few minutes…Though given how their luck had turned out so far, that was very unlikely.

Sighing heavily, Shepard spared another glance towards the windows; half expecting to see something staring back at her from the other side. Thankfully there was nothing, not this time at any rate. She still suffered from the paranoia that they were being watched, and the way Garrus and Jacob were fidgeting and glancing about, she knew she wasn't alone in that regard.

Glancing at her Omni-tool again, she noted another two minutes of silence had ticked by. And they were still relying on emergency power. "We might have to break the windows, make our own exit." Garrus proposed, his mandibles clicking slightly as he studied one of the glass obstacles.

"They'll be reinforced. Even with that fancy gun of yours it won't be easy to crack." Melina responded with a sigh, knowing that, while it was their best option to escape, it wouldn't be as simple as just shooting it a couple of times…

"A well placed grenade maybe?" Jacob suggested. "Or two?"

"That could work…" Garrus responded slowly, his eyes narrowing a touch behind his helmet as he studied the window. "The rooms to small though, we'll be caught in the blast no doubt…I doubt our shields would survive the blast."

The trio lapsed into silence once again, each trying to think of a new plan. Now and again, Shepard dipped a hand to the grenades on her belt, wondering if perhaps the risk was worth it…The power could be out for hours yet, and given the air was still and unrefined, it was still toxic. She knew her time was limited, and sitting around waiting wasn't an option anymore.

" _Do it…What other choice do you have?"_ A voice hissed into her ear, causing the commander to tense slightly. Despite her unease, she still felt a hand close around one of her grenades, her thumb coming to rest on arming trigger. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all…The bench in the middle of the room could probably stand up to some abuse.

Shaking her head slightly, she removed her hand and banished the thought. As much as she liked the idea (For some reason) it would probably wind up either getting them killed, or at least injured, and right now they couldn't afford the risk.

Unluckily for them, they didn't get the opportunity to come up with a better plan. As the cover keeping the air vent sealed abruptly crashed to the floor with a loud clatter, and a shadow flashed past, vanishing into the room with them.

"The hell!" Shepard cursed, her weapon snapping up as she scanned the room, trying to locate the surprisingly agile threat. Everywhere she looked however, only revealed bare walls or roof.

Had she imagined it? The vent was broken that was for sure. But had something actually entered the room? After a few more seconds of fruitless searching, the squad started to relax, if only slightly.

Then a low growl from behind them sent the squad reeling. Flashlights jumped about randomly, hoping to find the source of the noise. Again they found nothing.

"Their toying with us…" Garrus whispered, his voice echoing off the walls despite the volume.

Shepard caught a brief glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye, whipped around and instinctively pulled the trigger, only to end up chipping away at the wall as whatever she'd seen was already gone.

"It's fast." Shepard cursed, her eyes sweeping back and forth more rapidly then her flashlight as she hoped to spot it before it moved again. At the rate things were going however, they were either going to shoot each other, or possibly end up getting stabbed in the back.

Again she caught a glimpse of movement, whipped around and found an empty patch of wall, a third time and it was simply her reflection in the window. Melina gritted her teeth as a tingling sensation in her neck confirmed her fears, something was behind her.

Trusting her instincts, she whipped around, and this time caught a brief flash of something vaguely human in shape, but again it vanished from sight the second she pulled the trigger. "Damn it!"

Another flash of movement, and a blinding flash of light dazzled the trio as a line of powerful energy lashed out and struck the wall burning a jagged line into the solid steel.

Shepard had enough time to register the warm flash of something's breath on her neck before she spun around. Too late, she felt something grate across her shoulder and pain flared up as the claws of the necromorph cut through her armour like it was made of paper and dug deep into the flesh.

Ignoring the pain, she brought her rifle up and fired, and yet as quickly as it struck, the thing simply vanished from sight, moving far quicker then the commander's eyes could follow.

Jacob didn't even wince as he leapt backwards, the lighting quick necromorphs claws lightly grazing his stomach. Instead of trying to shoot it however, he instead lashed out with one hand, somehow his fist proved quicker this time and caught it in the jaw (What remained of it at any rate), causing the monster to stumble back. Not giving it a moment to recover, he snapped his rifle back up and pulled the trigger.

Either the creature was more fragile then it looked, or he just got lucky, as the bullets easily sliced the necromorph in two. The remains crumpled to the floor and finally stopped moving, mostly. He noted with a grim frown that its fingers still twitched, seemingly still intent on fighting even as whatever counted for life started to bleed out of its form.

Silence once again gripped the chamber as the squad caught their breath, Shepard was quick to replace the powercell in her rifle, not wanting to be caught lacking should anything else turn up.

Nothing did however, and the silence continued to drag on for several moments. "That's it?" Jacob asked, his weapon lowering slightly. "One necromorph and then they give up?"

"Something doesn't feel right." Shepard agreed, her eyes darting between the window and the broken air vent. There had to be a reason for the attack, either the monsters weren't even trying anymore, or they were planning something and this was just a distraction. Neither idea was promising…

Fate it seemed, was done toying with them for the moment, as a low droning sound reached their ears, soon followed by the lights flickering back into life. The ships VI confirmed that power was back, and the decontamination was resuming.

"Anyone else get the feeling the ships playing games with us?" Garrus commented as they blinked and squinted in the suddenly too bright light.

"Not much we can do about that." Shepard commented quietly, ignoring her still stinging eyes as she swept the room once again, they were alone. That was a good sign. And now they had more light to see by so it would be harder to get the drop on them. Or so she hoped at any rate.

After another agonizing wait, the door finally unlocked and slid open, the VI returning long enough to confirm that the process was finally finished. They wasted no time getting through the door and putting the death trap behind them.

"Next time, were going around the decontamination chamber." Jacob said quietly, sparing a brief glance towards the window as they passed it, before focusing back on the corridor ahead of them. Luckily with the lights on, they had a good opportunity to see where they were going.

"Their like roaches, they scatter when the lights turn on." Shepard observed, since power had returned they hadn't heard a sound.

"Maybe, or maybe their just waiting for another locked door to slow us down."

* * *

Needless to say, when they ran into yet another locked door on their way back to the air filtration systems. The group was naturally nervous as they filed to a halt. "This is the most direct path back." Garrus said slowly, his eyes narrowing just a touch as he noted the lockdown on the panel.

"We can probably hack it…" Shepard suggested, not keen on making another detour and winding up trapped in a dark decontamination chamber again.

The turian didn't need another hint, and swiftly went to work on his Omni-tool. Within moments he'd linked it with the door and went to work on the security. "Not what I'm used to. But I think I can handle it."

Shepard and Jacob turned their attention back to the corridor behind them, the joke earlier coming back to bite them. While they were cornered here, no where else to go. It would be a perfect opportunity for the necromorphs to try ambushing them again.

Aside from a few distance clangs, or the creaking of bulkheads however, everything was strangely quiet…Unnervingly so. "At least if they attacked. We'd have something to do." Jacob commented as he lowered his weapon and shifted to lean against the wall.

Shepard too had found herself leaning against the wall, mostly due to a dozen aches and pains from the injuries she'd sustained since the mission started, plus the poison in her lungs was starting to take its toll again. She blinked several times as her eyes grew unfocused again. But it didn't help.

"Got it!" Garrus hissed after a moment, he and Jacob jolted back into readiness, Shepard simply pushed herself off the wall and tried her best to stop swaying unsteadily on the spot.

The door opened without protest, revealing another empty corridor. One that was vaguely familiar to the squad, which was fortunate.  _'Were almost there'_  Shepard felt a slight smile form at the realization. Soon they could clear the air and she could breath more easily.

Provided she made it that far of course…

* * *

After another dozen or more corridors –or so it seemed to Shepard- they finally found the right door and, after hacking past the lockdown, filed into the air filtration room.

The chamber was surprisingly barren, with only a sizeable terminal in the middle of the spacias room. Three of the four walls were simply massive glass windows peering out into the hydroponics chambers, closed in glass rooms as far as the eye could see. All supporting various types of food.

Shepard only gave the view a brief glance, before approaching the terminal. As expected it was locked down like most of the systems on this deck. But it didn't take long to hack into the terminal and begin rebooting its systems.

A counter flashed up on her Omni-tool, indicating the reboot would take two minutes for whatever reason.

"Looks like were stuck here…" She commented quietly, a hand shifting to her mouth swiftly after as a new coughing fit wracked her body, reminding all three of them that she was running out of time.

"Just a couple more minutes, then we'll have the air purified." The commander said, glancing up from her Omni-tool display and towards the windows. "Hopefully Mordin has made that poison. Were gonna need it…" She trailed off as a warning chimed in the area outside. The lights outside the chamber darkening to a now unnerving orange.

" _Foreign contaminant detected. Lockdown in progress_." The VI confirmed a moment later.

"Never a dull moment." Jacob growled as he readied his assault rifle, Shepard and Garrus following suit…


	28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Isaac couldn't help but shiver slightly as his boots struck the ground, the reverberating clangs of each step echoing far into the darkness of the tram tunnels. Even if he deliberately took each step as lightly as possible, it still made a terrific clanging sound in the still and silent ship.

"If they didn't know we were here before, they do now." He commented quietly, his gaze as well as his flashlight darting about as he checked for signs of danger. Luckily for them the immediate area appeared empty.

"Well, we'll just have to hope they leave us alone." Tali responded with a weak shrug. Both knew that was unlikely, but, with any luck the necromorphs would be busy elsewhere and wouldn't come looking for them for the moment.

Given their luck so far though, that was unlikely…

"Come on, the longer we stick around the more likely they are to find us." The engineer said, more to himself then his companion, before setting off in the direction of the maintenance passage.

Around them, the faint groaning of bulkheads and the occasional inhuman howl bounced off the walls, adding to the already tense atmosphere.

Isaac did his best to tune the distant sounds out, focusing instead on trying to pick up on any sounds closer to home, the faint dripping sound of water –or blood- occasionally made its presence known, though beyond that and his own tense breathing he couldn't pick up on anything. Not initially at any rate.

Again as they picked their way through the darkness, that same bone chilling howl ripped through the ship, it still sounded far away, but it still made them shiver. They really didn't want to know what was making that sound. By now he was used to the feral cries of the necromorphs, but this sounded, bigger, more bestial then the others.

The sooner they rejoined the others, the better…

* * *

"Here it is." Isaac whispered, his flashlight finally landing on the door that separated them from the maintenance passage. It was naturally unlocked, and the door opened without protest upon approach, revealing the path beyond.

He barely suppressed a dismayed groan when he noted the catwalk was bathed in the dull orange of emergency lighting. "Great, guess we'll need our flashlights a little longer." He muttered warily before tilting his plasma cutter so he could see the power readout. The light automatically recharged when not in use, but given they'd been using them for a good ten minutes now…

Luckily the readout was still half full, giving them another ten or fifteen minutes of light before they'd have to recharge them. They would hopefully have made it to a safe area by that point.

"You pick the nicest places." Tali commented after a moment, causing both of them to smile behind their visors.

"Come on, this passage will lead us back to the hydroponics deck." Without waiting for a response, Isaac started inching forwards, flashing shifting from shadow to shadow to ensure nothing surprised them.

Luckily it seemed the necromorphs had either ignored the passage, or had already moved on. There was no sign of blood or scarring. No sounds seemed out of place. Everything was quite peaceful at the moment.

So it came as no surprise to either of them when a sudden burst of static assaulted their ears, indicating someone had activated their comm. unit.

" _What_ _the_ _hell_ _were_ _those_ _things?"_  A voice demanded panting heavily as the faint clattering of a weapon being reloaded filled the background.

" _How_ _the_ _fuck_ _should_ _I_ _know!"_  Another voice snapped anger evident in its tone.  _"Did_ _you_ _see_ _what_ _it_ _did_ _to_ _Michel,_ _ripped_ _him_ _in_ _two_ _without_ _even_ _thinking_ _about_ _it!"_

Isaac finally halted, his eyes wandering across his rig's interface, this sounded like an audio log, but he didn't trigger it.

" _What_ _ever_ _those,_ _things_ _are,_ _their_ _still_ _out_ _there._ _We've_ _got_ _to_ _get_ _moving_ _before_ _they_ _come_ _back_ _and_ _butcher_ _us_ _too!"_  The first voice pitched in again, now sounding a little calmer.

The engineer's eyes widened slightly as he located the right icon on his screen. It wasn't an audio log. It was an incoming transmission...which meant whoever was on the comm. was still alive!

He briefly shared a glance with Tali, who nodded to confirm she was hearing it too. That was all the incentive he needed to activate his own radio. "This is CEC Engineer, Isaac Clarke, who is this?" He announced a slight tinge of excitement creping into his tone as he spoke. Survivors, for once they'd actually found someone alive, someone alive that didn't sound crazy at any rate.

" _What_ _the_ _…_ _"_  The line briefly grew quiet as the two seemed to argue amongst themselves before finally responding loud enough for Isaac to hear.  _"This_ _is_ _Sergeant_ _Jackson,_ _USM_ _Valor."_  The second of the voices responded slowly.  _"The_ _hell_ _is_ _going_ _on_ _here?_ _We_ _came_ _here_ _answering_ _a_ _distress_ _signal_ _and_ _you_ _attacked_ _us!"_

"Were still trying to work that out ourselves, I was part of a team sent to fix the Ishimura's communications systems…we were attacked as well." Silence followed his announcement.

" _So_ _you're_ _trapped_ _here_ _too?"_  The first voice asked slowly.

The engineer shared a glance with Tali, whom could only shrug helplessly. "Were working on that...where are you? You're signals weak."

The second voice took over once again, likely the officer amongst the pair. "According to the map we downloaded were in the maintenance passages. It was the first place we could find that wasn't crawling with those…creatures."

Isaac hesitated as he scanned the map again; the passages were a maze if you didn't know where you were going. It was fortunate that he did. "Can you narrow it down a bit, were close to the communications tower."

 _"Hold_ _on_ _…_ _you_ _hear_ _that?_ " Silence gripped the other side of the comm. as both soldiers listened for something.  _"Damn_ _it!_ _They've_ _found_ _us_ _again."_  A loud screech burst through the static, before being drowned out by gunfire. A few moments later the comm. cut out entirely.

"Great…" Isaac rolled his eyes. They never could catch a break could they?

"Hold on." Tali's omni-tool lit up and began to glow as she tapped in a few commands. "I can try tracking the transmission, but I'll only be able to give us a direction at best."

"Well, its better then stumbling about blind," Isaac waited for a few moments while Tali toyed with her omni-tool. Soon enough though she nodded and relayed the information. "That way." She nodded towards a side passage, unsurprisingly it was darker then the corridor they were already in.

"Great…lets keep moving, who knows how long they've got." Isaac said as he let Tali take the lead this time. She had the means of tracking the marines, so it was easier to follow then keep glancing over his shoulder every few steps.

* * *

"How much further can they be?" Isaac growled as they turned another corner and continued into the endless maze of corridors.

"The signals getting stronger, they can't be much further." Tali offered a helpless shrug as she glanced towards her omni-tool once again before picking another passage. Isaac simply followed along in silence, hoping they found the missing soldiers soon. At this rate they were probably already dead, but there wasn't much they could do until they actually found them.

The silence was growing unnerving again. This deep inside the ship meant they couldn't even hear the hum of the engines, the subtle groaning of the bulkheads. The only sound to reach their ears was the faint thudding of their boots on the steel floor and their breath as it reflected off their helmets.

"It's quiet down here," Tali mumbled as her eyes shifted from shadow to shadow before returning to her omni-tool display. "I don't like it."

Isaac didn't respond beyond a slight nod. His focus had shifted away from the corridor and instead to his companion by this point. Her breathing was shallower then before and he could detect a slight change in her voice, it was hard to initially due to the odd accent and the subtle distortion from her visor's speakers. But now it was growing more obvious, it sounded almost like her sinuses were acting up.

He was no doctor, but even he could tell she was starting to sound ill. "Are you feeling alright Tali?" he finally asked, causing her to halt momentarily.

"I'm fine, just, just fine." She responded quickly and before he could press the issue she quickened her pace and continued tapping away at her wrist computer.

"…Alright." The engineer decided against arguing, if she was sick then he would have preferred to know. But if she was going to get defensive and avoid the subject, it wouldn't be worth inciting an argument over.

Another minute ticked by in silence before Tali abruptly halted again. "You here that?" She whispered. The silence had abruptly been broken by a faint cracking sound, the familiar bark of an assault rifle. After a brief burst of sound a distant animalistic howl followed.

"They must still be alive!" Isaac felt a grin form as he spoke, before he could act however Tali had broken into a sprint towards the sound, forcing him to do the same to try and catch up with her. "Let's hope they can hold on a few more seconds…"

* * *

The steady sound of gunfire continued to spur them on, kept them running through the maze of maintenance passages and past the numerous supply and storage rooms that lined the corridors.

Slowly the sounds grew louder, and more noises mingled with the almost endless barrage of bullets. Howling and screeching necromorphs, the occasional shout of 'reloading' as the marines fought to hold the line against whatever threat had found them.

They were almost there, Isaac was panting heavily by the time they skidded around the final corner and located the first necromorph corpse sprawled out in a heap just inside the door. Tali took the lead and carefully stepped over it, only to almost trip over a second.

"They've been doing a good job holding the line." She commented, noting the various bodies cut to pieces, some missing limbs, most however had simply been shot and butchered until they stopped moving. Unlike them, the marines obviously didn't know that simply putting a bullet in their head didn't work.

Turning another corner, Tali finally located the survivors, and promptly ducked back behind the wall with a startled yelp when a burst of rifle fire tore into the bulkhead inches away.

"Hold you're fire," Isaac shouted, pressing himself to the wall next to the quarian and waiting for some kind of response. "Were human!" Tali shot him a brief glance, but he ignored it.

"Come out, slowly…" One of the soldiers shouted back. Isaac hesitated for a moment, before moving past his companion and out into the open, his hands carefully lifted to shoulder level so they could see he wasn't about to start shooting.

The first thing he spotted was at least a dozen dismembered corpses scattered about the corridor, blood and gore staining the walls and floor. The second thing he noted was a trio of soldiers in full armour pointing assault rifles at him. After confirming he wasn't horribly mutated however, the soldiers slowly lowered their weapons.

"Engineer Isaac, I presume?" One of them asked, slowly rising from a crouch and shifting his rifle to one hand, Isaac simply nodded. "Sergeant Jackson, it's good to see a friendly face," the marine paused to tap in a command on a small device on his wrist, and with a sharp hiss the helmet covering his face broke apart and began to peel away like the layers of an onion.

Within a few moments Isaac was able to see his face. The commanding officer looked like a kid barely out of his twenty's at best. Short black hair framed his clean cut face, -Isaac doubted he would have even started shaving yet- a face that sported a rather grim glare as he studied the engineer. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped short, his pale blue eyes abruptly jumping to a point behind Isaac. The two behind him started to react as well, hands jumping to their weapons.

Isaac risked a glance over his shoulder, spotted Tali, and swiftly brought his hands up once more to stop them. "Whoa its okay, she's on our side." He hastily informed them, much to his friends relief they lowered their weapons, taking his word for it. "She's saved my neck more times then I care to count."

Jackson was silent for a moment, seemingly studying the quarian, no doubt having the same thoughts Isaac had upon first meeting her. It was obvious she wasn't human, the differences in her hands and feet were a dead give away.

"Alright…now, can you please tell us just what the hell is going on here?"

* * *

" _Warning:_ _foreign_ _contaminants_ _detected_ _lock_ _down_ _in_ _progress."_  The ships VI warned again as Shepard spared a glance over her shoulder and checked the terminal. It was still in the process of rebooting, meaning they were stuck here for another minute or two.

"I don't see anything out there." Garrus said slowly, his eyes never leaving the window. Whatever had tripped the alarm was staying hidden for the moment, which wasn't exactly promising, that meant it was smart enough not to just blindly rush them.

Silence gripped the chamber for a few moments, before a faint clicking sound drew their gaze upwards, the faint tapping of claws on the metal roof alerting them to the threat.

"Well, something's out there, that's for sure." Jacob whispered, seemingly hoping it wouldn't notice them if they kept quiet.

That idea was swiftly dashed as, whatever it was on the roof, promptly loosed a feral howl that chilled their blood. What made the sound worse was not only did it echo, but it was answered in kind by another, distant creature.

"Guess they know were here now." Shepard sighed, weapon snapping up to her shoulder once again. There was still one minute on the reboot, so they had to hold this position for a little longer.

Mere seconds later, the first necromorph burst from behind one of the crates and rushed straight for the windows, apparently heedless of the reinforced glass, it simply charged forwards and leapt at the squad, only to strike the window and bounce back with a bone jarring crack.

"Guess we'll be safe for the moment." Shepard commented as it tried a second time and bounced back. With a growl it lashed out with its claws, drawing a long crack down the window and causing a loud screeching sound. "Or not…"

As the necromorph repeated the process, slashing more scars into the glass, another half dozen of the creatures began to pluck themselves from the darkened room and approach. "I think its best we get out of here before they get through." Jacob commented as he watched the leader of the group vainly strike at the glass in hopes it would break.

Shepard risked a glance at the terminal, just in time to see the screen light up and the menu flicker into life. Spinning around to face the computer, she set to work punching in the commands to reactivate the filters.

A dull hum began to fill the room as the filters slowly began turning on one by one. The sound was music to Shepard's ears, finally breathable air again. Of course the moment was shattered as the window behind her was struck again and finally gave way under the assault.

Whipping around, Shepard winced as a stray shard of broken glass sliced into her cheek, ignoring the sting she leveled her rifle towards the first threat she saw and squeezed the trigger. The first necromorph that was unlucky enough to enter the room was promptly shredded by the high caliber rounds.

However as the first fell, another three leapt through the shattered window and began closing the gap. One was unlucky enough to be sliced neatly in half by Garrus' new weapon, while a second met a similar end as his earlier companion. The third however was quicker it seemed. Literally dodging a hail of bullets and easily closing the gap in two quick strides.

With a snarl its claws lashed out towards Shepard, causing her to leap back a step, her retreat was impeded when her back connected with the terminal however. But the brief gap brought her enough time to react and put the creature down before it could strike again.

In that short span of time, the hum had turned into a steady rumble as the filters activated and began purifying the air. That didn't deter the necromorphs for a moment however as more began to approach. "Fall back!" Shepard ordered nodding towards the door as the others began to shuffle backwards.

Once they'd moved a few feet she began to follow, slowly at first but soon she dropped her weapon and the trio made a hasty exit.

The door swiftly slammed closed behind them and Garrus went to work locking it even as something slammed into it from the other side with a resounding bang.

"Let's hope they don't disable it again." Shepard paused long enough to throw a glare towards the turian for his comment.

"If they do, you're coming back down here to fix it, alone." She snapped, before offering a brief smile. "I doubt it, but if they do let's hope we are well away from this mess before that happens…"

Once the door was locked, they set about trying to find their way back to the main food storage tank, which was where they'd hopefully find the rest of the team and their new allies.


	29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

"If I hadn't seen these, things for myself, I'd call you crazy." Jackson said slowly, his eyes shifting between Tali and Isaac as they finished explaining what had happened so far. "Hell, even seeing those creatures first hand, I still find it hard to believe."

"You're not alone there. This whole ship is like a bad, twisted dream." Isaac agreed, cringing slightly as memories of the past few hours (or was it days? He'd lost track of time by this point) filtered through his mind, the dismembered corpses, the twisted creatures that hunted them. The insanity that seemed to have overtaken some members of the crew, the few that were still alive at least.

How he wished he could just wake up from it all, find it was just some crazy nightmare. But if that were possible, he would have a long time ago, right?

Shaking the thought off, Isaac turned his attention back to the Valor survivors. "That's our side of the story. What exactly happened to the Valor anyway? You said the Ishimura attacked you?"

Jackson frowned. "I don't rightly know, we were answering the distress signal the ship sent out, trying to raise someone on the communications. That's when we," he paused to wave a hand towards the soldiers behind him. "Were put on alert, told to gear up in preparation to board the Ishimura to find out what was going on.

"There was an announcement over the comms, something about escape pods being launched." Tali and Isaac shared a glance. "Next thing I know, the ships on full alert, people are screaming, dying. Our CO got dragged off by, something…Then the ship crashed. We just took off running when those things started hunting us, wound up down here in the maintenance passages in hopes of finding a more defensible position."

"The necromorphs must have figured out how to use the pods." Tali suggested, no one bothered to argue, the implication that these creatures were actually growing smarter and learning to operate escape pods was a troubling thought.

"Nothing we can do about it now." Isaac pitched in, waving a hand towards the corridor behind them. "For now its best we head for the food storage and hydroponics deck The rest of Tali's squad is there, we can make plans to get off this ship once were there."

A small string of agreements followed as the three marines checked over their weapons, ensuring the power cells were fresh and they were ready to move. Tali swiftly took the lead and started back the way they'd come.

Before Isaac could follow, a hand coiled around his wrist and lightly yanked him back a step. "Are you sure we can trust her?" One of the marines hissed in his ear. The engineer frowned, Jackson was the only one to provide a name so far, the others remaining quiet and keeping their helmets on the entire time. It unnerved him to say the least, sure it was easy to say they didn't want to lower their guard, but it still rubbed Isaac the wrong way.

He stared into the glowing visor for a long moment, as though hoping he could see through the emotionless metal and meet the marines gaze. When that failed, he simply nodded. "She hasn't tried to kill me yet…so that's something." He stated simply, before turning away, the soldier simply grumbled under his breath, to low for Isaac to hear, before falling into step behind him.

The engineer didn't want to admit it, but he had more trust and faith in Tali, then the soldiers right now. Though he couldn't explain why.

* * *

"I repeat, the filtration system is back on line, were on our way back to the main food storage unit." Shepard said into her comm. unit. Only static greeted her words, as it had done for the past three attempts. "Damn it!"

"Something must be blocking communications, still." Garrus growled as he checked his own radio, finding a similar result. "Must be something blocking communications."

"Or no ones around to pick up the phone," Jacob pitched in, earning a glare from the turian sniper. "It's a possibility."

"I'd rather not think about that." Shepard responded, her voice weak and almost unheard, her eyes dipped downwards and focused on the floor. She really didn't want to think about that possibility.

" _If their dead, then its all your fault."_  A voice droned in her ear, she ignored it. " _They would follow you to the end, which they did. They trusted you!"_  She winced as a cold chill struck the back of her neck, a chill breath that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

" _Your fault!_  A pair of hands suddenly gripped her shoulders, and she instinctively jolted, one hand diving for her pistol, the other closing into a fist and preparing to lash out.

"Commander! You okay?" She blinked, her head snapping upwards to focus on Garrus and Jacob, both staring at her with a mix of concern and confusion. She vaguely realized her pistol was in her hand, her thumb on the safety ready to click it off.

The commander blinked again, her heart pounding in her chest for reasons she didn't understand. Finally, she simply nodded. "Fine, just, fine." She responded quickly. For a moment she considered mentioning the, whatever that had been, but quickly dismissed it. The last thing she needed was her squad thinking she was losing her mind…

"Let's keep moving, need to get back, find the others." Garrus and Jacob shared a glance, before the turian responded slowly, his voice laced with concern.

"You sure you're okay Shepard?"

"No." She growled a scowl forming as she pushed past the pair and started down the corridor. "Let's get moving!" She repeated more forcefully. Within a few steps she heard the faint clanking of footsteps behind her.

"She's still rattled from the poison." Jacob whispered softly, though his voice still echoed off the bulkheads and reached the commanders ears. She ignored him.

"I don't know, you saw how she reacted when I spoke to her. Something's got her spooked." Garrus responded just as quietly, Shepard felt her hands clench into fists, maybe she was losing it. But she really didn't need her squadmates doubting her leadership skills; she was doing that enough on her own.

Instead of speaking up, she activated her Omni-tool and brought up the map of the ship. It was a rather straight path back through the ship, provided none of the doors were locked like earlier.

She let the thought sink in for a moment. Finally things were turning around for them, they'd actually managed to get the filtration systems working again, they weren't dead and if her estimate was correct they'd be back at the storage chamber in a few minutes.

So why did was that familiar 'something horrible is about to happen' foreboding feeling slowly settling into the pit of her stomach?

She didn't have time to dwell on it, as a sudden crackle from her comm. caused her to jump and swiftly press two fingers to her ear. "Say again?"

" _-ard? Commander Shepard? Good, comms working again it seems. Was worried when filters reactivated but couldn't raise you."_  Mordin's voice filled her ears, and a relieved sigh left her lips.

"Am I glad to hear a familiar voice." Shepard responded quickly. "Where are you?"

" _Not far from food storage, was waiting, but. Situation changed when power failed. Decided to try and locate you when comms failed. Not far from your position."_  Shepard nodded along with the report, her Omni-tool lighting up a second time as she checked the map and with a few taps located Mordin's comm. signal. They were only a few corridors away!

"Sit tight, were almost too you." She started moving again, her squadmates in tow. Finally they were starting to regroup; with luck they could get the hell off this ship soon.

Despite the flash of hope however, Melina kept waiting for the inevitable 'twist' that would pop up. So far whenever something seemed to be going their way, the ship threw something new at them. Any second now the new horror or locked door would cut off their progress…she was sure of it.

* * *

_45 Minutes Earlier_

The minutes had ticked by slowly, the 'Valor' having attempted several times to raise someone on the Ishimura, and failed.

For the past fifteen minutes, silence had dominated the bridge of the  _Normandy_  while Joker and EDI waited for the new arrival to make the first move. They couldn't move to help Shepard with it watching over the ship like a hawk, not without revealing themselves. And if the  _Valor_  turned out to be hostile, then that might be the last mistake they ever make.

"Were wasting time just standing here," a low voice growled from behind Jokers chair. "Our battlemaster is in danger and your just sitting doing nothing!" Grunt complained for the seventh time since he'd arrived on the bridge to find out why they weren't moving.

"Hey, you wanna jump out the airlock and go punch the ship be my guest. I have orders." Joker stated with a sigh, having said a similar variation on the line each time the krogan had protested waiting for orders.

"We can't just sit here!" Grunt snarled, his hands closing more tightly around his shotgun that he refused to holster. Joker doubted he would actually use it, but he kept one wary eye on the krogan, just to be safe.

"Well once Shepard calls us we'll be right there to help. But unti-"

He was cut short by a new message from the formerly silent ship. " _Ishimura, We've detected your escape pods. Were moving to recover them._ "

Checking the scanners again, the pilot noted several new signals, no doubt the pods the  _Valor_  was planning to collect.

Escape pods? Had Shepard abandoned the ship, or had they found survivors and weer evacuating them? One of the pilot's hands strayed to the comm. but swiftly withdrew. Opening a channel might reveal the ship, who knew how good their scanning systems were.

Tense seconds ticked by as the  _Valor_  drifted closer, picking up various pods as it closed the gap between it and the  _Ishimura_. Joker's hands rested on the controls, ready to spring into action. The signals began to vanish as they were brought aboard the ship.

However it continued at a rapid speed towards the opposite ship, in fact according to sensors it wasn't slowing or altering course. "What the hell?" Joker whispered, leaning forward in his seat, watching intently as the  _Valor_  drew nearer to its target.

Still it wasn't showing any signs of slowing or stopping, the scanners showed the kilometres between the two ships was rapidly bleeding away going from thousands, to hundreds and lower still.

The bridge was silent as they watched; even Grunt kept his mouth shut as the tiny (by comparison) ship simply kept on course. The distance counter finally struck zero, and with a bright flash, the  _Valor_  vanished off the long range sensors.

"What the, hell just happened?" Joker finally broke the silence, a full minute having ticked by after the crash.

"I thought you humans knew how to fly." The krogan behind him commented, the pilot didn't respond, still staring blankly at out the bridge window at the  _Ishimura_. From here they couldn't see the extent of the damage, however given the size difference between the two vessels; it probably hadn't made that much of an impact.

Finally shaking off his shock, Joker began punching in commands, and the  _Normandy_  began moving. "Screw this, were going back for Shepard and the others."

"Our orders were-"EDI tried to remind him, but was swiftly cut off.

"Screw orders, something's going on, and I'm starting to get the feeling the commander can't handle it alone."

Grunt simply grinned; finally, they were getting back into the fight! All this standing around and watching was tiresome. Finally he could shed some more blood.

* * *

"You hear that?" One of the marines whispered, his assault rifle snapping up as he whipped around, scanning the corridor behind them. The group halted a moment later, each listening intently.

A faint groaning of metal reverberated throughout the passageways. "It's the ship creaking, don't worry about it." Jackson said after a moment, turning away. He barely made it halfway when a new sound greeted them, a distant screech of tortured metal. As though something was trying to carve through the bulkhead.

"Or not…"

"Move, quick!" Isaac hissed, giving the lead marine a nudge to get him moving again. "Best we don't stick around to find out what that is." No one bothered to argue, quickly focusing back on the tunnel ahead and pressing onwards.

They hadn't gone far before the sound came again, louder, more clearly heard then a third time, louder, and almost right on top of them. Isaac could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he snapped around again and watched the path behind them.

His flashlight panned over the empty corridor, revealing nothing out of the ordinary, though given the amount of side passages and hatches that led to different parts of the ship, whatever was out there could literally be right on top of them and he wouldn't even know it.

A subtle movement drew his attention, and his eyes fixated on a pair of dots peering out of the dark at him, tiny blue orbs that lurked just on the edge of his flashlight beam. Despite his helmet, he could swear they were eyes, staring straight into his own.

He flicked his light over the foot it needed to land on the target, just in time to catch something vanishing down a side passage, a faint flash of white.

Isaac shivered slightly before risking a glance over his shoulder. The lights off his companion's guns were barely noticeable, vanishing around a corner ahead. "Damn it." He grumbled, glancing back the way they had come one final time, whatever it was hadn't come back it seemed, the corridor was deserted.

Spinning on his heel, he rushed to catch up to the rest of the group. They were almost out of here, just a few more twists and turns. Best not to start falling behind now.

* * *

"How did I know that was going to happen?" Shepard growled as she slammed a hand down on the door control, slamming it shut behind her squad, a second later a loud bang sounded as the necromorph pursing them slammed head first into the newly sealed entrance. The faint snarls and scratches as it tried to pry the door open again was ignored as the trio shuffled away from the immediate area.

Shortly after they'd contacted Mordin, Shepard's unease had proven correct as a fresh batch of the creatures had popped out of the preverbal woodwork and tried to cut them down.

Luckily they'd been able to retreat to the door and lock it, cutting the necromorphs off for a few moments. "Life's just getting predictable?" Jacob offered, earning a weak smile from the commander.

"We need a vacation." Shepard responded, her eyes dipping to the ammo gauge on her rifle, seven rounds, damn. With a huff, she opened the weapon and ejected the spent power cell, upon reaching for a new one, she found the slots on her armour were bare. Much fumbling later she found a power cell, her last one, and reloaded her weapon. "…Great, almost out, Garrus? Jacob?"

The pair stopped to check their own supplies. "Two clips." Jacob responded after a moment in a grim tone.

"…One round." Garrus responded slowly, shaking his head as he finished checking for any stray power packs of his line rifle.

"Great…" Shepard sighed, her attention shifting to her Omni-tool display. "Mordin's team should be through the next door. Signals weak but it hasn't moved." She paused for a moment, as her squadmates nodded.

They were about to start moving again, when another deafening bang sounded from behind them, the trio whipped around, weapons jumping to their shoulders. A heartbeat later, another bang sent vibrations through the floor and walls, and the newly locked door buckled inwards by several inches.

A third impact caused it to crack and buckle further. "I don't think I want to know what's comin' through there." Jacob said, already backing away from the rapidly weakening door.

"Screw this." Shepard agreed, spinning on her heel and bolting, Garrus and Jacob not wasting any time to follow. They only made it a few paces before a fourth bang sounded, closely followed by a screeching as the door was forcefully ripped in half by whatever was following them.

Darting around a corner and through the next door, the squad halted long enough to slam the door shut and trigger the lockdown behind them. Luckily for them, Mordin and Hammond were waiting, weapons at the ready and pointing in their direction.

"Shepard! Good to see you." Mordin stated cheerfully, his gun still firmly directed towards the newly locked door. As was every other weapon they had by this point.

"Good to see you made it." Shepard responded with a weak smile, her eyes leaving the door for a second to take in the squad, Mordin was looking a little battered, and Hammond was favouring one leg, but they didn't look to worse for wear.

Her eyes narrowed a touch as she realized they were one short. "Where's Miranda?"

Any response she received was drowned out by yet another deafening clang as something slammed into the door. Much like the first, it buckled inwards several inches. "The hell is doing that?" Hammond asked, no one responded, they didn't get a chance.

A second later the door shattered as something struck it, sending shards of metal everywhere, bouncing off armour and shields. Shepard steadied her aim, expecting something like they'd faced on the bridge, a huge monstrosity, after all what else could rip through solid metal doors like that?

The squad was naturally surprised when the first shadow to step through the ruined door, was mostly human in size and shape, tall and slender. Despite her instincts telling her to shoot, Shepard hesitated.

The creature still retained most of its human appearance, cold blue eyes glared back at the team, eyes framed by long, raven black hair and a face that most would consider beautiful, or would have if not for the fact its mouth was split into a wide snarl, teeth unnaturally long and far sharper then normal, reddened by blood gleamed as the commanders flashlight played across the face.

Hands had been transformed into malformed claws, warped into razor sharp talons that would shred flesh, bone and likely metal alike with equal ease.

Despite the changes, Melina still recognized the, creature. "Miranda…?" She whispered, her hands trembling and her weapon dropping several inches as she stared, horrified at the monster that had been her squad member.

The moments hesitation was shared by everyone it seemed, as no one fired a shot as Miranda glared at them, a cold hunger evident in her gaze. The necromorph however, had no such reservations anymore.

A brilliant blue glow enveloped the creature, and finally jolted Shepard out of her daze. However as her weapon snapped up and her finger closed around the trigger, the glow suddenly burst outwards, slamming into the squad and sending them all flying backwards, slamming into the walls and floors.

The commander winced as she heard a loud snapping sound upon hitting the ground, blinding pain flared up in her side, but it went ignored as a sense of weightlessness signalled the attack wasn't over yet.

Before she could react, she was pulled several feet off the ground, and abruptly slammed back down, the pain doubled. Rolling onto her back, she fought to catch her breath, each gasp sending fresh flashes of pain through her chest.

A second later what little breath she had was knocked out of her as something slammed into her, pinning her to the floor, Miranda's cold, dead eyes met her own as the creatures talons closed around her throat and cut off her airway.

Discarding her rifle, Shepard tried to pry the hands off her neck, but it was stronger and simply squeezed harder. "M-Miranda, stop!" She choked out desperately as the corners of her vision began to darken.

Surprisingly, the necromorph halted, its creep relenting just a tiny fraction, the barest hint of recognition entering its eyes. A second later a shot broke the brief silence, a bullet struck Miranda's shoulder. And with a snarl it suddenly let go, leaping aside to attack the new threat, and left Melina gasping and coughing on the floor.

Another flash of blue, followed by a cry of pain was the only sound to reach her ears over her own ragged breaths.


	30. Chapter Thirty

Shepard barely had enough time to gasp as Miranda's claws left her throat, before something else latched onto her shoulders and started to drag her backwards away from the fighting.

Before she could summon the strength to fight however, she was quickly dropped again, and Mordin appeared by her side. "Shepard, are you injured?" He asked quickly, his head snapping around as a gunshot rang through the corridors, turning back, his Omni-tool lit up as he lightly hovered it over the injured commander.

"No worse then usual." She managed to say, a strained smile forming as she weakly lifted her head, Mordin seemed unfazed by the attempt at humour, his expression remaining perfectly neutral as he studied the readouts.

"Injuries, not life threatening, will do what I can once were…safe." His gaze shifted back to the opposite end of the hallway as another brilliant flash of blue light lit up the area, the loud crash of something striking the wall swiftly following, a moment later, an unnerving silence took hold.

After a moment Mordin stood and offered a hand to Shepard, who quickly gripped it and pulled herself back up onto her feet, hissing and wincing at each ache and pain in her chest and ribs in the process.

"What happened?" She demanded upon standing and realizing that the small team was scattered about the hallway, Hammond was laying, slumped against one wall, breathing heavily and bleeding from a gash in his forehead. Garrus was still on his feet, weapon in hand and glaring back the way they'd come, the shattered remains of the door giving way to an empty hallway. Jacob was in the process of hauling himself back to his feet, his left arm held close to his chest.

"Miranda…that thing, bolted," Garrus said after a moment, finally lowering his weapon. "She tore through us and just ran," he shook his head. "No idea why, it's not like those creatures to back down even when out numbered."

Mordin quickly darted away to check on the rest of the squad, while Shepard retrieved her discarded rifle. "Given how easily she beat us, I think its best we take what blessings we get." She responded slowly, idly checking over the weapon to ensure there were no serious damages.

"Agreed," Garrus nodded, tearing his eyes away from the corridor and focusing back on the squad. "I think its time for some answers though…" His voice dipped into a low growl as his gaze settled on Mordin and Hammond, the last two people to be seen with Miranda before her transformation.

"Ambushed on medical deck, fought hard…Miranda didn't make it." Mordin said quickly as he bowed his head, hands clenching into fists. "Did all I could, wound were fatal…or so I thought."

"I don't think that, thing is your squad member anymore." Hammond pitched in, shakily pulling himself back to his feet with the salarian's help.

Shepard frowned, though quickly shook her head. "She seemed to recognize me when I said her name; I think that was the only thing that stopped her killing us." One hand moved to lightly rub her neck, with the gauntlet in the way she couldn't directly feel any damages, but as her hand retreated, the fingertips were stained with fresh blood.

"Regardless, I think its best we shoot first if it, she comes back." Hammond responded, most of the squad nodded reluctantly, save the commander.

"If she comes back, I'll deal with her personally…" She paused, eyeing her boots again. "She's my responsibility." The squad hesitated, exchanging nervous glances, before Jacob responded.

"Whatever you say commander."

"Regardless, I don't think it's wise to stay here and wait for her to come back." Garrus suggested, again the group nodded, and one by one they started to file out of the corridor until only the turian and the commander remained.

"Commander?"

Shepard stirred slightly, her eyes finally shifting away from her boots and moved to the sniper. "You okay?"

The pair stared at each other for a long moment, silence reigning. Before the commander pushed off from the wall and walked away, head hung. Garrus's mandibles twitched as he watched her go, before he quickly fell into step behind her.

* * *

The journey back to Food Storage was a slow one from that point on. Shepard and Hammond were slowed by their injuries, while the others simply slowed down to keep close and cover them during the trek.

Thankfully it seemed Miranda was giving them space for the time being, and in turn the other necromorphs seemed to have fallen back, leaving the group in an uneasy silence, a quiet that had dragged on for the past several minutes.

Finally, after what felt like an hour of blood stained and darkened corridors, they reached the food storage chamber, the massive door looming ahead of them as they filed into the main room, a sizeable bank of computer monitors and terminals lay in between, the majority of the interfaces either locked or flashing various warnings about the contents of the tank and the outside pollution that was still dissipating.

"This terminal interfaces with the storage chamber…we should be able to inject the poison from here." Hammond informed them, waving a hand towards the computers before hastily stepping aside as Mordin withdrew the (thankfully undamaged) capsule from a pouch on his belt and approached the computer.

"Are you sure this will work?" Garrus asked, as the group shuffled closer to the terminal and waited, Mordin quickly set to work reactivating the terminals and preparing the system for the poison injection. "And can we be sure this won't wind up killing us?"

"Cannot say for certain, likelihood of toxin affecting us, minimum, Toxin will be localized to storage chambers, unless we enter it shouldn't harm us." Mordin said, his voice as rapid fire as his typing as he finished preperations. "Didn't have much to work with, results, uncertain." He paused, wringing his hands together as he glanced about briefly, Shepard simply nodded when he glanced her way.

"We've dealt with everything else so far." She said, shrugging slightly and wincing as her ribs twinged in protest.

Mordin nodded as well, before tapping the confirmation button.

Everyone waited as the computer screen flickered, then a box flashed up confirming the process was complete.

Another minute ticked by, before a loud, ear splitting shriek tore through the corridor, The squad swiftly clutched at their ears and cried out in shock and pain at the sudden sound. A loud banging revbeated through the ship as the creature inside struggled and fought against the poison.

After several agonizing moments, the sounds died away, leaving the deck in an uncomfortable silence.

Shepard was the first to risk removing her hands from her ears. "It worked?" She hissed, slowly the others followed her lead, listening for the slightest sound.

They risked breathing a collective sigh of relief, right before a loud resonating bang sounded against the food storage door, closely followed by another. They all instictively brought their weapons to bare as another terrific screech filled the air.

"...I hate karma."

* * *

At last, Isaac, Tali and the small squad of marines found the access ladder path leading back into the ship proper, the very same that would deposit them very close to the hydroponics deck, and the rest of the  _Normandy_  crew.

"Should be just through here," Isaac said, examining his map a final time before nodding towards the door they'd clustered around. One of the marines stepped up to the panel and tapped the icon to open it.

As it opened, the team all raised their weapons, waiting, tensed and ready to fire if anything was beyond. Only the dark, empty hallway met their unwavering flashlights. "Looks clear, come on." Jackson whispered, he and the two surviving marines quickly crept forwards, each picking a direction and training their weapons that way while Jackson swept the ceiling for any vent covers.

"Clear." Reported the marine watching the left, closely copied by Jackson and the soldier watching to the right, Tali soon followed them into the corridor as well, her weapon still at the ready.

Isaac moved to follow, however he was pulled up short as a faint sound pulled his attention back to the maintenance passage behind them. He halted, straining his ears for the slightest sound.

Just as he was about to give up, it came again, a faint whisper that rang in his ears as though they were whispering right next to his ear, though still faint enough to seem, distant and hard to focus on.

" _Isaac,_ " the voice came again, sound desperate now. The engineer frowned as he raised his plasma cutter, idly scanning the corridor they'd just cleared. " _Isaac, help!_ "

"Isaac, what's wrong?" A different voice asked, drawing his attention back to the squad, all four of his companions were watching him now, waiting for him to catch up.

"Nothing thought I heard something." He mumbled quickly, before following them through the door, Tali was quick to shut and lock it behind them to ensure they weren't followed.

"Were, almost there,' Isaac said quickly, pulling up his map once again to double check their path. He briefly paused, glancing left and right along the corridor, "This way." He nodded towards the right path, before setting off, the map clicking off in the process. The squad easily fell into step behind him, their weapons still held at the ready.

The ship was, for once, quiet. No creaking, no distant howls of necromorphs, nothing.

"So quiet…" Tali mused, eyes darting about uneasily. Isaac noted the marines were shifting about uneasily as well, likely finding the quiet worse then having to deal with the nightmares the ship constantly threw at them.

"Come on," Isaac urged, before moving once again, the rest of the squad began to move as well, their eyes casting about in every direction. The corridor was largely empty, save the odd patch of dried blood or cracked and dented bulkhead. Several places were scorched and blackened.

"Looks like a hell of a fight went through here." Isaac observed, pausing to examine a patch of blood on the floor, the red liquid glistened brightly in the light of his cutter's torch. "Recently too…"

"Think Shepard's team went through here?" Tali asked as she joined the engineer.

"No idea could be survivors from the  _Valor_  as well." Isaac suggested with a slight shrug, before carefully stepping over the pool of blood and moving on, the others quickly following. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find them, still in one piece."

They didn't have to go far apparently, as they rounded another corner and halted. The hallway, much like the last three or four, was stained with fresh blood, though this time a trio of corpses littered the room, all wore the same armour as Jackson and his squadmates. One was dismembered horribly, a second propped up against the wall, still clutching a line rifle tightly with a deep gash in his chest plate that looked to be down to the bone and leaking blood at a steady rate,

The third was dangling from a loose vent in the ceiling, his legs swaying lazily back and forth. "My, god…" One of the marines muttered, twisting his head away from the grim sight, Isaac cringed behind his visor, but pressed on, advancing slowly, his light playing across the blood and remains.

"I'm glad the filters still work." Tali mumbled, Isaac chuckled, indeed, the smell was probably terrible, the sight alone was turning his stomach, thankfully the filters in his rig were keeping out the worst of it.

"Doesn't look like we can do anything for them." Jackson said, sighing heavily as he studied the corpse dangling from the vent above. Suddenly he leapt back a few steps as the body abruptly moved, his rifle snapped upwards as the remains abruptly lurched upwards and were pulled into the darkness by an unseen creature.

The squad waited, but no further movement or sound followed. Slowly, they lowered their weapons and began to inch away. Eventually they risked turning away and resuming their trek. "How many men were aboard the Valor, Jackson?" Isaac asked after a long moment of silence.

"…Dozens, hundreds. It certainly didn't have the kind of crew the Ishimura did, but." He trailed off, his helmet dropping towards the ground. The engineer didn't press him for any more details.

It hardly mattered, right now Isaac was only worried about how many of those fallen soldiers, were now stalking them through the ship…

His train of thought was abruptly derailed when an ear splitting screech tore through the ship, it ended quickly, but the deafening echo persisted for several long moments afterwards, as did the loud ringing in his ears, judging by the rest of the squad clutching at their helmets and groaning, he wasn't alone in that regard.

"What, was, that?" Tali asked, shaking her head to clear the disorientation.

"No idea, but it sounds pissed." Jackson said, glancing back and forth along the hallway. "I really don't fancy meeting…whatever that was head on."

"Agreed," Isaac nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here."

* * *

"Get ready you two; we'll be docking any second." Joker called over his shoulder as the  _Normandy_  steadily drifted closer to the hulking form of the  _Ishimura_. Much like their first 'landing' it took a while to find a suitable place to dock, the ship being designed much differently to anything Joker was familiar with.

Luckily the ship was still largely in one piece, a miracle given the amount of abuse it had undergone so far. As a result it didn't take long to find the same airlock they'd used to transfer the first ground team.

Waiting by the airlock doors, Grunt eagerly smacked his fists together, preparing himself for what was no doubt going to be a glorious battle. If these, creatures could give Shepard and the others a run for their money, then it should be a interesting (if easy) fight for him.

Samara simply stood to one side, expression neutral and body completely motionless as she waited for them to dock, unlike her more, bloodthirsty companion; she was calm and collected, already set for the fight ahead without hesitation.

Only two of them, it would be a hard fight to find the ground team. Given the size of the vessel and the lack of communications so far, plus their brief tussle with the necromorphs proved the enemy wasn't a simple mercenary group looking for a few credits or valuable cargo.

No matter what they were up against, it was a lot of ground to cover for just two soldiers.

A faint clanking sound drew their attention, both squad members pausing in their preparations to glance back towards the CIC.

A familiar metallic figure with a sizeable hole in its chest rapidly drew nearer and halted, an assault rifle clutched loosely in its hands. "I thought you got scrapped in the cargo bay?" Grunt said, eyeing the geth. Its arm looked shiny and new, and several plates along its head and torso were also lacking the scars and scrapes the rest of its body, but that aside it looked normal.

"Damages sustained were not irreparable. This platform simply needed time to replace damaged components." Legion responded in its usual monotone, its head flaps shifting slightly in a vague 'expression'.

"How is miss Goto?" Samara piped in, her expression and tone betraying no emotion, much like their synthetic companion.

"Recovering, humans cannot replace damaged parts as easily as geth. It will take longer before she is combat ready again." It responded, its head turning slightly and its 'eye' seemingly settling on a spot slightly to one side, before twisting back to focus on the justicar.

"Alright, docking now, get ready!" Joker called over his shoulder, cutting their conversation short.

"About time!" Grunt chuckled, drawing and cocking his shotgun. Samara copied his movements with a heavy pistol while Legion simply hefted its assault rifle with one hand and turned to face the airlock.

A dull clang signalled they'd docked, and a moment later the airlock opened with a sharp hiss. "Good luck out there. Bring me back a something nice!" The pilot shouted as the doors clanged shut behind them. A moment later the dull hiss of the cycle beginning filled the chamber.

After an agonizingly long wait, the door finally opened, revealing the first hallway.

It was more or less how they left it, right down to the mess of bullet holes and scarring along the walls, and the stack of necromorph bodies that was piled up by the door.

Upon entering the ship proper, the krogan paused long enough to activate his radio. "Shepard, this is Grunt, we've boarded the ship, where are you?" Only static greeted his rather clipped message, he tried twice more, but fared no better.

Grunt simply pushed forwards, shoving corpses aside as he cleared a path for the trio. They quickly filed through the airlock and set off into the depths of the ship. Their first stop, the bridge, where Garrus' last transmission had originated, it was as good a place as any to start.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone that read fics over on Fanfiction.net might recognize this story (But probably not) I uploaded this and several other stories there several years ago, though sadly I lost my confidence for a while and hung up my pen for a while. recently though I've been gaining some confidence and writing again and I hope to have something new to show for it in the near future.
> 
> However I figured before then I might as well reupload my old stories here as a means of learning how posting stories works and to put some stuff out there for people to read, (if they can stomach my terrible fanfic skills :P) while I try to come up with new material.
> 
> Anyway, I hope if anyone reads this they enjoy it, and if not, well, my bad.


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